Valeo acquires electric supercharger business from Controlled Power
06 December 2011
As part of its strategy of developing solutions to reduce CO2 emissions, Valeo has acquired the Variable Torque Enhancement System (VTES) (earlier post) business of UK automotive technology development company Controlled Power Technologies (CPT). VTES will be integrated into Valeo’s Powertrain Systems Business Group with immediate effect.
With this move, Valeo becomes the first automotive supplier to offer its customers a range of electric superchargers. Unlike exhaust-driven turbochargers, electric superchargers are driven by an electric motor. This technology, which leverages a switched reluctance motor with very low inertia, responds much more quickly than a conventional turbocharger.
Highly efficient at low engine revolutions, electric superchargers make it possible to downsize engines. When coupled with an energy recovery system, electric superchargers can be used to create a cost-competitive hybrid solution that can deliver fuel savings of up to 20% in the standard European driving cycle, Valeo said.
At the 2011 Directions in Engine-Efficiency and Emissions Research Conference (DEER) hosted by the Department of Energy earlier this year, Ricardo presented results from its HyBoost demonstrator program—a vehicle based on a 2009 Ford Focus that combines aggressive 50% downsizing of the engine with an electric supercharger for transient low-speed performance, and a micro-hybrid stop-start and energy recuperation systems. HyBoost shows comparable performance to the conventional 2.0L version of the vehicle but with fuel economy and CO2 emissions approaching those of a Prius. (Earlier post.)
CPT has worked with Valeo over a three-year period to define electric supercharging system requirements. Our automotive customers wanted clarity about future plans for the VTES product and a sale to Valeo was the best solution to enable our VTES technology to reach its full potential. It also validates our approach to technology development, which we apply to all our products.
—CPT CEO Nick Pascoe“
CPT was advised on the transaction by Turquoise International (corporate finance) and Matthew Arnold Baldwin (legal & tax).
Isn't this a well known and well established technology. Why isn't it used more to reduce the size and weight of ICE?
Posted by: HarveyD | 10 December 2011 at 01:06 PM