The Development of an Ultra Compact Electric Vehicle Range Extender Unit

里程焦虑是广泛采用电动汽车（EV）及其提供的环境效益的最大障碍（Fastcoexist，2013）。44%的英国司机认为排放和环境友好性是购买汽车时的重要因素，但只有5%的人会考虑购买电动汽车，因为范围问题（ONS，2014）。车辆制造商试图通过安装增程器来解决这个问题，然而，目前的增程器解决方案倾向于使用基于活塞的内燃机。该技术成熟、可靠、低维护、低油耗和相对低的排放。然而，存在许多缺点，包括：由往复运动部件（活塞）引起的显著振动、成本和复杂性、相对低的功率重量比、重、大的占地面积和庞大的尺寸。活塞发动机需要发动机舱，这严重限制了电动汽车的设计自由度，因此转子发动机因其具有功率重量比大、体积小、振动小（无往复运动部件）、结构简单、成本低等优点而被认为是活塞发动机的替代品。然而，转子发动机也有噪音，在可变速度和可变负载下效率低下，并且排放量高。因此，这些因素限制了转子发动机作为增程器的适用性。本项目旨在开发一种全新的转子发动机系统，用作电动汽车的超紧凑增程器。我们的技术旨在消除转子发动机在增程器应用中的缺点，同时利用其固有的优点。该技术的成功开发将在市场上6年后带来4750万英镑的累计收入。

Range anxiety is the single greatest obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles(EV) and the environmental benefits they offer (Fastcoexist, 2013). 44% of UK driversconsider emissions & environmental friendliness as important factors when buying a car yetonly 5% would consider buying an electric car due to range concerns (ONS, 2014). Vehiclemanufacturers have sought to address this issue through the installation of range extenders.However, current range extender solutions tend to use piston based internal combustionengines. The technology is mature, reliable with low maintenance, low fuel consumption &relatively low emissions. However, there are numerous disadvantages including: significantvibrations resulting from reciprocating parts (pistons), cost & complexity, relatively lowpower to weight ratio, heavy, large footprint and bulky size. Piston engines need engine bays,and this seriously limits the design freedom with electric vehicles.Consequently, rotary engines have been considered as an alternative to piston engines becausethey 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 factorstherefore present a limitation to the suitability of rotary engines for use as range extenders.This project seeks to develop a completely novel rotary engine system for use as an ultracompact range extender for electric vehicles. Our technology aims to eliminate thedisadvantages of rotary engines for range extender applications whilst building on the inherentadvantages. The successful exploitation of the technology will result in cumulative revenue of£47.5m after 6 years on the market.