Hybrid and mighty

Having gained popularity in the automotive sector, many suppliers of hybrid drives are engineering their battery-electric offerings for the off-highway market. Customers, in turn, are experiencing major gains in efficiency and economy.

As Innas BV's Peter Achten sees it, hybrids in recent years have not been considered a decent fit to off-highway applications. “Hybrid drivetrains are foremost developed for passenger cars where they can benefit from the recuperation of brake energy,” he said. “But for many off-highway vehicles, brake energy recuperation is not an option. Furthermore, hybrid-electric vehicles need sophisticated electric transmissions with delicate and expensive inverters, converters, and batteries. Taking the extreme power transients in mobile machinery and the rough operational conditions of off-road drivetrains into account, it is questionable whether the delicate hybrid-electric drivetrains can be considered a viable, inexpensive, and robust option for off-highway applications.”

However, despite this view, there is a great deal of development effort being put into combining electrical power with traditional engines on a wide range of applications away from the highway.