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In order to increase overall energy efficiency of road vehicles, new systems that are able to recover vehicle's kinetic energy usually lost in dissipating process of frictional braking are being developed. This study was done to look at the effects of integrating Mechanical Flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) into an automotive vehicle. Possible system architectures, due to different connection point of the KERS into the vehicle driveline, were proposed and investigated. Interaction of the system main components (IC engine, vehicle Gearbox, KERS subsystems) was analyzed and explained. In particular, three plots are proposed to introduce a graphical representation that can help the project manager to understand the effect of different parameter values related to the main system components on the overall system behavior during energy transfer from the vehicle to KERS and back.

This paper shows the main results of a research activity carried out in order to investigate the impact of different hybridization concepts on vehicle fuel economy during standard homologation cycles (NEDC, FTP75, US Highway, Artemis). Comparative analysis between a standard passenger vehicle and three different hybrid solutions based on the same vehicle platform is presented. The following parallel hybrid powertrain solutions were investigated: Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) solution (three different levels of hybridization are investigated with respect to different Electric Motor Generator size and battery storage/power capacity), High Speed Flywheel (HSF) system described as a fully integrated mechanical (kinetic) hybrid solution based on the quite innovative approach, and hydraulic hybrid system (HHV). In order to perform a fare analysis between different hybrid systems, analysis is also carried out for equal system storage capacities.