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Mercedes’s Formula One technicians have demonstrated their Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) to the company’s road car engineers – and the conclusion is that the technology has almost no direct relevance to road car applications.

“The Formula One people developed mechanical and electrical systems and came and presented them to us,” said a source within Mercedes' road car engine department.

“The mechanical fly wheel system had absolutely no relevance to road car use, and while ...Read the full article

I do wonder if KERS or a derivative would be better suited to busses!   They're always stop and starting, often never leaving cities (generally speaking), and perhaps having some sort of hybrid would be better suited to such transport.

Certainly having a V16 diesel engine that's twenty+ years old thumping out black soot all the time can't be healthy!   If you really want to convert the country to being "green" you've got to change the busses to clean ones, and also all the taxis that run all day with black dust flying out their exhausts.

The modern diesel or especially petrol engines are far cleaner that apparently the worst "emissions" is from re-suspended dust they throw up form the road that's been dumped there by the busses etc!

Symanski, for the record the Torotrak and/or Flybrid system has already been tested on Buses and, as you say, due to the stop/start nature of buses, has given a fuel improvement of up to 45%.

Conversly to the spirit of this article, the system(s) have also been tested on road cars and has again given dramatic fuel improvements.

 

There have been several bus trials running purely on a flywheel system, similar to old fashioned trams that have a lot in common with KERS.

As for Mclaren, I'd guess their designers were examining the system more for enhancing outright performance rather than fuel savings, so KERS may be more relevant to everyday cars than full on sports cars where weight saving is all important.

adrianhu:

Symanski, for the record the Torotrak and/or Flybrid system has already been tested on Buses and, as you say, due to the stop/start nature of buses, has given a fuel improvement of up to 45%.

I am aware that there has been talk of this for many many years, just that I've not seen busses actually running this system commercially.   Around where I am (mostly rural - great driving roads!) the best we've got is a bio-diesel bus.   You're never sure if the bus is about or the chip van!

To run a bio-diesel on a waste product, such as the used fat from said chip van, is one thing.   To grow bio fuels is another.   That by the time you've grown and refined the bio materials you're at the point where there was no benefit from it's "green" source.

I believe there's system for caine sugar which are using a mixture of refining the sugar in to alcohol, using the waste product to fire the heating process and at the same time running a turbine to create electricty.   Newer systems are running at higher pressures for the turbines so they're generating more electricity and therefore increasing it's efficiency.   Unless you have something like this you're wasting your time with a bio-fuel as too much energy is wasted in it's production.