CQS group T racing team: Electric and hybrid drive trains can perform in endurance races!

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CQS group T racing team: Electric and hybrid drive trains can perform in endurance races!

Caubergs, Roel / Ilsbroux, Ingrid / Waeyenbergh, Geert

CQS Group T Racing Team consists of 30 Master students from Group T International University College Leuven. The goal of the team is to design and develop an electric and hybrid drive train and to demonstrate them in two race cars based on the chassis of a Citroën 2CV. The hybrid car is called 'Pegasus', while the fully electric car is called 'Odyssee'. Both cars will demonstrate their performance in October 2010 in a 24h race for 2CVs on the famous track of Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium). Both cars have an environmentally friendly biocomposite body. The biocomposite consists of natural fibers such as flax which are impregnated with a bio-resin. Pegasus has a flexi-fuel injection system, which allows the air-cooled flat twin engine to run on bio-ethanol. In addition, the car is equipped with an electric Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to drive efficiently. Odyssee is equipped with an innovative Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM). This type of motor is very well suited as a traction motor in electric vehicles. In comparison to other motors a SRM offers some interesting advantages with regard to production costs, torque/weight ratio and lack of magnetic material. The energy is supplied to the SRM by intelligently integrated lithium iron phosphate battery cells. The design and development of these cars is the subject of an 'Entrepreneurial Engineering Experience' which is part of the two-year path of the Master Program. The two-year path is an innovation for industrial engineering education in Flanders.