F2012-E14-014 A TEST BED FOR DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST HYBRID PROPULSION 1 Chanumolu Raviteja * ; 1 Pantagani Sudhir Kumar; 2 Atluri V Prasad; 1 Ghosal Ashitava 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, India; 2 Propulsion System Research lab, GM R&D Centre, Warren, MI KEYWORDS – Urban mobility, Hybrid, Test bed, Parallel, Hub motor ABSTRACT The three-wheeled vehicle, commonly called an “auto-rickshaw” with a four-stroke petrol, LPG or CNG engine is one of the most common and affordable means of transportation(for hire) in Indian cities. It is a small, highly manoeuvrable vehicle and ideally suited for the narrow and traffic clogged streets of urban India. Electric and hybrid vehicles are particularly suited for use in urban areas since city transportation is mainly characterized by relatively short driving distances, low continuous power requirements, long idling times and high availability of regenerative braking energy. These characteristics, when carefully incorporated into the design process, create valuable opportunities for developing clean, efficient and cost effective urban vehicle propulsion systems. A novel, low cost, test-bed for experimenting with hybrid propulsion systems for urban areas is developed and presented in this work. The main objective of this work is to study the performance of a parallel hybrid configuration with DC hub motor and an IC engine. The hybrid configuration in this case adds speed to the wheel output unlike the normal power split configuration which adds torque. The addition of speed is done by connecting the output of engine and CVT to the stator of an electric hub motor. The test-bed can also be used to experiment with series hybrid configuration with inclusion of a power generating circuitry in the existing setup. INTRODUCTION It is almost universally accepted that the urban human population will continue to increase monotonically and significantly for the foreseeable future [1]. The population growth is expected to be more in less developed countries, as opposed to developed countries, and it is expected go up from 2.5 billion to more than 4 billion by 2025 in less developed regions. In particular, according to an UN study done in 2002, most of the new and rapid urbanization will take place in India, China, South-East Asia, Latin America, Africa and South America which are the less developed regions of the world. This increased urbanization and economic growth and the accompanying need for personal transportation and mobility is expected to lead to increased demand for energy, increased emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, increased environmental impact and pollution[2], and result in increased congestion on the existing roads. One of the key questions is how we can address these challenges and develop sustainable personal mobility solutions. Some of the key requirements (in addition to many other issues) for the next generation urban vehicle must be a) high fuel efficiency, b) low or zero emissions and c) compact design to negotiate crowded roads. It is becoming increasingly clear that the future is biased towards “small, beautiful, drivable and affordable’’ vehicles. It is becoming increasingly clear that hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the most promising propulsion systems [3-5].