Magneti Marelli has highlighted what it refers to as “the possible green technological links between motorsport and road cars” during a workshop held in Washington DC.
The workshop was sponsored by the Italian Embassy and Italian Ministry for the Environment, as part of the 2012 edition of Global Cleantech 100, with the aim of encouraging meetings between Italian companies active in the ‘green economy’ and American investors.
According to the Italian supplier, which is part of Fiat SpA, high performances and eco-sustainability today are travelling on increasingly converging paths, driven by the growing need to reduce costs, fuel consumption and emissions. This makes the bridge between the motorsport world and the road cars world even more strategic, “in a technological osmosis capable of adding value to both areas.”
Magneti Marelli said it regards motorsport as a fertile environment, a technological laboratory and an incubator for the development of new competences and technologies that also feed and inspire new green solutions, with a view to ‘sustainable mobility’.
The example of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), the system for the recovery of kinetic energy under braking developed in 2008 for Formula 1, was illustrated during the workshop. This system subsequently became a source of technological solutions and spin-offs for systems and components aimed at mass-produced hybrid and electric engines (motor-generators, electronic control systems, inverters, battery control, etc).
In view of the new F1 regulations set to come into effect in 2014, Magneti Marelli confirmed it is already working on developing and fine-tuning its evolution: the Energy Recovery System (ERS) system, which combines the recovery of kinetic energy under braking and the recovery of energy coming from exhaust gases, both aimed a feeding the electric motor-generators connected to the drive shaft. The company believes new scenarios are opening up to hybrid solutions in motorsport, with important opportunities in terms of engine performance, consumption and efficiency even as regards mass production.
In contrast, Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) high-pressure injection technology has moved in the opposite direction – from mass production to motorsport. GDI has been adopted for some time on mass-production vehicles in order to achieve high-level performance with a view to reducing consumption/emissions, boosting performance and downsizing engines. Today, it is also used on the racetrack and during rallies and, starting in 2014, it will be fitted on Formula 1 cars. Magneti Marelli Motorsport is already testing injectors and pumps for GDI engines with gasoline pressure values of up to 500 bar
The company also is working on developing a two-way Wi-Fi data transmission system from vehicle to infrastructure (pit/garage) that, compared to current radio transmission, allows more effective exchange of a much larger volume of data and various types of signals, at high speed. Magneti Marelli believes these technologies, suitably adapted, have important spin-offs in the area of connectivity and infotainment systems for mass-produced vehicles, specifically with regards to communication technologies between one vehicle and the next and between vehicles and central infrastructures, with a view to smart traffic and vehicle management, and to the optimisation of itineraries and dynamic driving or ‘automatic driving’ electronic horizon solutions.
Magneti Marelli believes these three examples of technologies illustrated in Washington DC may allow up to a 35% reduction in fuel consumption (performances being equal) in the motorsport area, as well as a significant reduction in consumption and emissions on standard vehicles.
