Going green with brakes could be a new mantra in India?s heavily packed cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
This is a new frontier that has opened up for urban bodies planning for wholesale revamp of the public transport infrastructure with some of the nearly Rs 60,000 crore ($15 billion) of funds coming their way.
Armed with data that shows trucks in urban areas waste up to 30% of their fuel in braking at least every three minutes, India?s leading truck manufacturers, Tata and Ashok Leyland are planning to build in new technology that will cut down the waste by half.
PM Telang, managing director (India operations), Tata Motors, told FE the company was exploring the new technology. One of these, he said was the hydraulic hybrid regenerative braking. ?We are evaluating the system for our products.? This is a product that has been developed by Eaton Corporation, a diversified power management company, present in the automotive space too.
The pay offs are significant, for the civic bodies in terms of substantial cut back in fuel costs and the brake wear an tear in the stop and start traffic. Typically, a refuse truck in the city wastes 30% of its fuel load every time it halts for collection (at an interval of 1-3 minutes), leading to an overall increase in the cost of ownership of the trucks. It also reduces brake life and productivity.
So how does the new technology work? According to Arun Jaura, vice-president (technology) and head of Eaton Corporation?s India engineering centre, the system sort of recycles the braking energy to provide a thrust to the truck, when it moves again. Jaura claimed the new system pushed up fuel efficiency by up to 30%, and works best on heavier vehicles as almost 100% braking energy can be conserved.
R Seshasayee, MD of India?s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, Ashok Leyland, said that the company is looking into newer technologies including electric and hybrid.
The OEMs look more open to retro-fitting of the system on the vehicles than changing the drive-line. This technology is already running in China, US and South American markets.
But auto experts question the viability of add on technology in the Indian transportation eco-system. VG Ramakrishnan, director, automotive and transportation, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, said, ?Every technology comes for a cost. But the question is how many will be open to the technology. It depends upon how OEMs convince the fleet owners to pay a one time premium for sustainable benefits.?
He has a point. Civic bodies are pushing the packet in new technology especially in transport solutions but most are relying on switching over to compressed natural gas as the fuel of choice. The core issue is that of enhancing productivity, reducing carbon footprint and saving costs. Suppliers, original equipment manufacturers and fleet owners are now looking at transitional alternatives that will gradually reduce dependence on the internal combustion engine.