The Development of an Ultra Compact Range Extender for Electric Vehicles

里程焦虑是电动汽车(EV)广泛采用及其带来的环境效益的最大障碍。44%的英国司机在购买汽车时将排放和环保视为重要因素，但由于里程问题，只有5%的人会考虑购买电动汽车。汽车制造商试图通过安装续航里程扩展器来解决这个问题。然而，目前的续航里程扩展解决方案倾向于使用基于活塞的内燃机。然而，也有许多缺点，包括：往复部件(活塞)引起的显著振动，成本和复杂性，相对较低的功率重量比，笨重，占用空间大和体积大。因此，旋转发动机作为活塞式发动机的替代品受到青睐，因为它们具有高功率重量比、紧凑、低振动(没有往复部件)、简单和低成本等固有优势。然而，旋转式发动机在变速和变负荷时也存在噪音大、效率低、排放高等问题。因此，这些因素限制了旋转发动机作为续航里程延长器的适用性。AIE正在开发的这项技术旨在通过开发一种全新的旋转发动机系统来解决这个问题，作为电动汽车的超小型续航里程延长器。这对旋转发动机的影响是深远的，将导致混合动力汽车的使用量增加，显著减少二氧化碳排放。

"Range anxiety is the single greatest obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and the environmental benefits they offer. Forty four percent of UK drivers consider emissions & environmental friendliness as important factors when buying a car yet only 5% would consider buying an electric car due to range concerns. Vehicle manufacturers have sought to address this issue through the installation of range extenders. However, current range extender solutions tend to use piston based internal combustion engines. However, there are numerous disadvantages including: significant vibrations resulting from reciprocating parts (pistons), cost & complexity, relatively low power to weight ratio, heavy, large footprint and bulky size. As a result, rotary engines are finding favour as an alternative to piston engines because they have inherent advantages such as high power to weight ratio, compact size, low vibration (no reciprocating parts), simplicity & low cost. However, rotary engines are also noisy, inefficient at variable speeds & variable loads, and have high emissions. These factors therefore present a limitation to the suitability of rotary engines for use as range extenders.This technology under development by AIE aims to address this issue by developing a completely novel rotary engine system for use as an ultra compact range extender for electric vehicles. The implications are profound for the rotary engine and would lead to increased uptake of hybrid electric vehicles, significantly reducing CO2 emissions."