Technical Paper
Hydro-Mechanical Transmission Implements Regenerative Braking for the Postal LLV Trucks and a Hydraulic Hybrid Passenger Vehicle at a Lower Cost than a Conventional Vehicle
2015-04-14
2015-01-1096
The frequent stops of the typical postal delivery vehicle make it an attractive application for regenerative braking. The hydro-mechanical automatic transmission described in SAE paper 2014-01-1717 contains all the functions necessary to implement hydraulic regenerative braking including the accumulator and reservoir. This paper describes the substitution of the hydro-mechanical transmission for the present transmission of the postal LLV vehicles and estimates the performance benefits. The result represents a low impact path for the US Postal Service to extend the useful life of the LLV vehicles and increase the mpg by approx. 100%. A cost comparison between a convention ICE mid-sized passenger sedan and a similar size gas/hydraulic hybrid vehicle illustrates the cost advantage of the hydraulic approach using the new transmission design. Besides lower cost, the vehicle will have greater initial acceleration and 25%+ better mpg.