Micro Hybrids: Going Green One Step At A Time

Electric vehicle is the latest and the greatest green technology currently available in the automotive sector. But despite all efforts, incentives and subsidies, electric vehicles remain out of the reach of an average consumer. In my previous blog posts, I have written about technologies such as plug-in hybrids, hybrids, turbo charged engines and micro-hybrids. This article will take a closer look into micro-hybrids and why I think that is the best technology for the current time.

In my opinion, the best technology is the one which makes a mass impact. You can always create a great prototype which is extremely efficient but it is difficult to create a commercial product for the mass market. Such prototype technologies are good for developing future products and defining future product trends but are not suitable for current needs. Considering these factors, I think "micro-hybrids" will be the best technology for current times.

When I talk about micro-hybrids, I am talking about vehicles with small battery packs with regenerative braking, engine start-stop and turbo charger engine technologies. Combination of these three technologies will provide green-house-gas emission reduction and operational cost savings. It will also provide a smaller payback period than electric vehicles or plugin electric vehicles. In the previous post "Efficiency: The Underlying Trend", I briefly wrote about micro-hybrid technologies and also explained why I feel these technologies are important.

Turbo Charged, Direct Fuel Injection Engines: By using high efficiency turbo charged, direct fuel injection engines, the car manufacturer can easily downsize the engine. Instead of using a 1.6 Liter gasoline engine to drive a small sedan, the automaker can use a 1.2 liter turbo charged engine producing the same power output but using less gasoline. As car needs less fuel, it will emit less carbon dioxide and will have a lower operation cost.

Engine Start-Stop Technology:  The technology allows the car to shut off the engine when it comes to a halt in the city traffic and when you put your foot on the accelerator peddle, the engine starts automatically. It eliminates the engine idling fuel consumption, eliminates particulate matter emissions, effectively improves efficiency and reduces fuel costs. The challenge is to keep air-conditioning, heater and auxiliary power systems running. Hence this technology needs bigger battery pack and independent air handling technologies. Some micro-hybrids cut off the air-conditioning systems when the engine shuts off which is not a good design as consumers will not choose such products. Developing a slightly bigger battery pack, electrically operated compressor and heat storage tank for heater application in addition to start-stop technology will match the current comfort level requirement of the consumer.

Regenerative Braking: This technology uses generators which capture the energy from braking and charges the larger battery packs. This allows the vehicle to capture kinetic energy which would have otherwise wasted as brake-pad wear or heat. All hybrids and electric vehicles have this capability but using this technology on a small scale without requirement of high-power electronics and motor will reduce the cost of technology. For example, Nissan Leaf has a 80kW motor which is also used to capture the energy from braking. Instead of using 80kW motor, smaller 5kW system can be used to capture partial braking energy which will help charge the batteries. This motor will not be used to propel the car but will be used only to capture the braking energy. This will allow reduction in the cost of the system and make it more attractive to the average consumer.

These three technologies combined together can add significant efficiency to current cars. I am excited about these technologies because the cost and possibility of the mass deployment. The incremental cost of adding these technologies to existing car models is 10 to 15%. With increasing gasoline prices, the payback period on these technologies will be far less than those on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. I am a big fan of electric vehicles and believe that the electric vehicle is the practical long term future but in the short term these technologies will help us get closer to our goals of emission control and cost savings.

Many market surveys have shown that owners of Nissan Leaf were prior owners of hybrid vehicles such as Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. Technologies mentioned above can act as a catalyst to the consumer interest in zero-emission technology and will help improve the awareness about green technologies.

Focus :- Start-ups need to focus

I like to track developments in the start-up world and while doing that, I come across many interesting start-up companies. Electric vehicles, web technologies, mobile applications and many other innovative ideas are introduced by start-up companies every year. I have observed that many start-ups begin their journey with a unique customer problem. Start-ups do a wonderful job in identifying customer needs but then sometimes they try to do too much too soon. Companies lose focus and start solving many problems at the same time. Mentors and Angel investors do advice start-ups to have a laser sharp focus, but I think the definition of focus is not clear. I have read many articles on web, advising early stage companies to have a laser sharp focus on products and customer problems. These articles also suggest that start-up companies should not waste their energy on pursuing activities which are not core to their mission. I see a problem with this approach, because focus can also make you irrelevant. Defining the meaning of "focus" is very important and I am trying to come up with my understanding of focus.

In my opinion, start-up companies should focus on a single customer problem they wish to solve. For example if any company is solving a problem X then it should only focus on solving that problem. Combining solutions for different customer problems into one product is just going to make your product expensive and unsuitable for the mass market deployment. So according to me, the focus should be on the problem the company is trying to solve and not on products, sales and market segments.  Let me give you an example, let us imagine a start-up company "XYZ auto" '(I am not suggesting any company here but my thought was influenced by one company I came across in real world) is trying to solve a mobility problem of senior citizens and differently-able  people. They have created a nice innovative product to help people move from point A to point B without hassles. Now the primary problem the company solves is "Mobility". So the company should only focus on solving that problem. Now while designing the product, the company will have many choices such as, whether to use high end material, whether to use electric batteries instead of gasoline engine and whether to have low speed or high speed vehicle etc. The company should choose the technology and the product design which effectively solves the primary problem and once they have chosen the technology for that, the next step should be to cut costs, make the product available to entire market and make it affordable for entire target audience. There may be different opinions of experts on this topic, but for me, solving the customer problem and making the product available to everyone who faces that problem is far more important than making cool product. Profitability is important but that should never be the driver for the product design decisions in the beginning.

Reason why I think defining the focus is important, because start-ups face a huge risk of being irrelevant. The technology is reshaping landscapes of all industries. If the start-up is focusing on some technology without paying attention or without evaluating different options, then there is a huge risk of failure. Many people believe that start-ups should never diversify as it takes more money, efforts and time to diversify. But I think start-ups should always work on associated technologies which will enable them to make quick adjustments to products in case of failure of selected technology. This approach will help them achieve the mission with which they started their journey.  

So the statement "Focus is very important" is true, but how you define the focus is also critically important. My simple approach is to focus on problems and try to solve only one problem at a time.

Let me know what you all think, write your opinion in the comments section. I will love to read your point of view.