Solutions - HEV

Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles are clean, but are limited in the distance they can travel between battery charges. The Capstone MicroTurbine serves as an onboard battery charger, enhancing range, providing added power for air conditioning and consistent acceleration. Thus, the need for daytime battery charging or swapping is eliminated. At night, hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) can plug into the local grid, recharging when electric rates are at their lowest. This functionality makes the total fuel cost significantly lower than a conventional diesel or natural gas vehicle. Further, maintenance costs are dramatically reduced since the microturbine is air-cooled and uses no oil. Regenerative braking, deployed in most HEVs, also reduces the cost of brake pad replacements.

The Capstone MicroTurbine™ is the solution. It is today’s best value for clean, reliable, and quiet mass transportation, truck and fleet operations. The Capstone system serves as an onboard generating device applied as the prime power source in hybrid electric vehicles.

Capstone-energized hybrid electric buses, trolleys, and other transit vehicles today deliver benefits unattainable through conventional approaches. Partnering power generation with electricity storage:

• Achieves dramatically lower NOx emissions with no pollution controls
• Cuts operational and maintenance costs
• Maximizes in-service availability
• Enables vehicle size, payload, and operating range capabilities impossible to achieve with electric-only vehicles

Economic Comparison
While the initial capital cost of a Capstone-energized hybrid is somewhat higher than a conventional engine and genset, service costs are 70% lower. Fuel efficiency in a Capstone-energized hybrid vehicle is 40–80% higher than conventional drivetrain vehicles.

• C30 Liquid Fuels  p/n 331032E
• C65 & C65 ICHP Liquid Fuels  p/n 331035E
• C200 Liquid Fuels  p/n 331049D
• C600 Liquid Fuels  p/n 331051D
• C800 Liquid Fuels  p/n 331054D
• Capstone Drive Solution: Range Extender