Due to space considerations, the following letter to the editor (running in our December 2006 issue) had to be drastically edited. However, the topic is an interesting one, so I am posting the full, original text below, for those who are interested.

-PJH


November 15, 2006

Mr. Paul Heney
Senior Editor
Hydraulics Pneumatics Magazine

Subject: Letter to the editor – Hydraulic hybrid

Dear Mr. Heney:

I read the October article "Hydraulic hybrid promises big savings for UPS" with great interest. From 1979 to 1983 I was Director of Engineering for Advanced Energy Systems (AES) located in Portland, OR. AES was a subsidiary of the L.B. Nelson Corp. of Menlo Park, CA an America Stock Exchange traded company. Our mission was to further develop and bring to commercialization the hydraulic hybrid technology that inventor/AES President Vince Carman had three U.S. patents on.

A 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel that had previously been outfitted with a hydraulic hybrid system by Mr. Carman was demonstrated on November 15, 1979 in Portland for U.S. Postal Service officials, Oregon state transportation officials and the local press. The Volkswagen Rabbit was driven over a simulated urban postal delivery route and showed an 87.5% improvement in fuel mileage when compared to the same vehicle driven with its standard Volkswagen drive train. After the field tests the demonstration vehicle was run on a vehicle dynamometer using the same urban postal delivery driving cycle. The results showed a 72.1% improvement.

This phenomenal increase in mileage was attributed to the stop-and-go and idle portions of the postal route driving cycle. During these periods the strategy was to have the microprocessor turn the engine off and drive on stored hydraulic energy until the accumulators reached a low energy storage level at which time the microprocessor would signal the engine to start and partially recharge the accumulators. The engine controls were programmed to have the engine run at its optimum governed speed for best fuel economy during the recharging process.

The Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel was the best fuel economy (40 MPG, EPA city and 52 MPG, EPA highway) production automobile sold in the United States in 1979. With the demonstration mileage results achieved using this highly fuel efficient vehicle, AES personnel thought they really had something the U.S. Postal Service and other large fleet operators would be interested in.

Acting upon U.S. Postal Service recommendations, AES submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Postal Service showing an annual fuel savings of 327.3 gals/vehicle for their 1/4 & 1/2 ton delivery vehicles. In 1979 the Postal Service had a combined inventory of 103,586 _ & _ ton delivery vehicles. The proposal included a firm fixed price of $ 700,000 to design, retro-fit and field support three hydraulic hybrid postal delivery vehicles for one year.

AES never received any official word from the Postal Service on the proposal, in spite of constant prodding by the office of U.S Representative Robert Duncan of Oregon. The unofficial word was the Postal Service did not want to enter contract negotiations for a hydraulic hybrid at this particular time.

From 1980 to 1982, AES designed and developed an integrated, microprocessor controlled hydraulic hybrid for heavier vehicles such as UPS and urban delivery vans. All the hydraulic components were assembled into an aluminum cast housing similar to an automatic transmission and would replace the factory installed transmission. The new hydraulic transmission, along with two light weight, continuous filament wound accumulators, were installed in a 1979 Chevrolet delivery van. After extensive dynamometer and road testing, it became obvious the integrated transmission was going to require a lot more time and money to develop than originally planned.

At this point, the L. B. Nelson Corp. decided to switch project priorities by placing the integrated transmission development on hold and directing all of AES’s resources toward further development of the retrofit version. This was an attempt to speed up the commercialization of the technology and get much needed revenue coming into the corporation.

In July 1981, AES received a $49,541 contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct further testing of the prototype vehicles. This was a token amount when compared to the development costs that the L. B. Nelson Corp. had spent to date.

In mid 1983 the L. B. Nelson Corp. canceled all funding for AES and the Corporation’s involvement in the development of hydraulic hybrid technology.

During its four years of existence, AES had filed for and received four U.S. patents, along with co-patents in eleven industrial nations, on hydraulic hybrid technology. These patents are in addition to the three patents previously issued to inventor Vince Carman.

In conclusion, this experience is another example of an under capitalized company attempting to bring a new technology to market in the automotive industry.

I wish the best of success to the Eaton Corporation and UPS in further developing the hydraulic hybrid technology.

Eugene F. Lucas
Lucas & Associates
Woodland Estates
Hayward, CA 94542
glucas16@sbcglobal.net