The Development of an Ultra Compact Range Extender for Electric Vehicles

"Range anxiety is the single greatest obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and the environmental benefits they offer. Forty four percent of UK drivers consider emissions & environmental friendliness as important factors when buying a car yet only 5% would consider buying an electric car due to range concerns. Vehicle manufacturers have sought to address this issue through the installation of range extenders. However, current range extender solutions tend to use piston based internal combustion engines. However, there are numerous disadvantages including: significant vibrations resulting from reciprocating parts (pistons), cost & complexity, relatively low power to weight ratio, heavy, large footprint and bulky size.

As a result, rotary engines are finding favour as an alternative to piston engines because they have inherent advantages such as high power to weight ratio, compact size, low vibration (no reciprocating parts), simplicity & low cost. However, rotary engines are also noisy, inefficient at variable speeds & variable loads, and have high emissions. These factors therefore present a limitation to the suitability of rotary engines for use as range extenders.

This technology under development by AIE aims to address this issue by developing a completely novel rotary engine system for use as an ultra compact range extender for electric vehicles. The implications are profound for the rotary engine and would lead to increased uptake of hybrid electric vehicles, significantly reducing CO2 emissions."