Continental Offers a Wide Range of Drive Systems for the Car of the Future

As an international automotive supplier, Continental's development programs cover the whole range of drive concepts, providing vehicle manufacturers with modular systems from internal combustion engines to purely electric drive systems so that they can react flexibly to market requirements. Within these systems, there has to be the best possible balance and coordination between the individual components in the drive concepts. As a result, the existing technology is already capable of significantly lowering fuel consumption. Just by optimizing the design and ensuring the optimum interplay of all the components in the overall vehicle system, we will be able to reduce CO2 by up to 15 percent, said Avila.

Tomorrow's mobility: combustion engine, hybrid drive, electric driving
Because every hybrid vehicle has both a combustion engine and an electric motor, most of the cars in the world will still be fitted with an internal combustion engine even at the end of this decade. We estimate that the proportion of electric-only vehicles will amount to some 3 percent by 2020, said Avila. But, by then, even gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles will be electrified to a large degree. They will use start-stop systems which automatically switch off the engine when the vehicle is stationary and, when the accelerator is pressed, re-start it even more quickly than at present; they will have electric drive systems that allow emission-free driving for short distances, for example in urban driving; and they will also have an electrified auxiliary unit that can be switched on an off as required. The constant tightening of CO2 targets will lead to a noticeable growth in vehicles with mild hybrid systems. Smaller vehicles, in particular, will be equipped with massively downsized, but powerfully supercharged combustion engines, combined with electric motors to provide electrical driving assistance. In order to exploit further potential for reducing CO2 emissions, plug-in technology will make it possible for the vehicle to be re-charged from a conventional socket. Pure electric vehicles rely entirely on electrical energy as their source of power. In order for them to be used for longer distances as well, if necessary, they will be fitted with a range extender, a small combustion engine installed in the car to act as a generator. Electric vehicles using fuel cells as their source of energy generate their own power on board, using hydrogen as the primary energy source.
The global proportion of electric vehicles is not expected to rise above 10 percent until 2030.



Managing variety: enhanced efficiency and electrification
Continental is pursuing two avenues in order to retain its expertise despite the wide variety of future drive systems:

One is enhancing the efficiency of traditional drives using innovative technologies such as exhaust gas turbochargers, new injection and ignition systems, and optimized demand-regulated fuel pumps; the other is electrifying the drive train by installing power electronics, electric motors, and energy storage units as core components.

Additional examples of how the drive train is being optimized and electrified are:

•Engine and transmission control: the new Engine Management System 3 (EMS 3) is not only designed to cope with the most varied injection systems, but can also accept the integration of hybrid technology.
Electromechanical control for fuel-efficient double-clutch transmissions has been brought into series production to compete with hydraulics; this electromechanical control of dry double-clutch transmissions is a world first.
•Injection and fuel systems: Continental is a leading global supplier of common-rail systems, high-pressure pumps, and injection valves. Even the smallest quantities of fuel must be metered with absolute precision. The processes that Continental has developed allow gasoline and diesel injection systems to operate with this degree of precision, robustly and reliably, over their entire service life. The next generation of the demand-driven fuel pump will also contribute to a further improvement in fuel consumption.
•Air and exhaust paths: one important approach to reducing fuel consumption is 'downsizing', i.e. using smaller engines equipped with a turbocharger and direct injection. The turbocharger developed by Continental will go into large-scale production this year. Exhaust gas aftertreatment technologies include SCR systems for reducing nitrogen emissions. Engine, catalytic converter, and environmental data is collated by Continental's innovative sensors and analyzed by the engine electronics.
•Electrification & e-mobility: start-stop systems will take over in all vehicle categories. Future systems will ensure even more efficiently that even the briefest periods when the vehicle is stationary can be used to switch off the engine. Energy regeneration (recuperation) makes high demands of the energy management system and requires intelligent control units and sensors.
In electric vehicles, the need to use electrical energy sparingly requires a sophisticated thermomanagement system, in which even the heat balance of the power electronics, the battery, and electric motor needs to be controlled precisely.
Continental's power electronics for hybrid and electric vehicles are already second-generation components, so they are much smaller than competing products. Continental is setting global standards in electric motors by producing separately-excited electric motors, known as synchronous machines, that manage without rare-earth magnets and operate at a very high efficiency level.
Systems expertise opens up further potential for savings
The ongoing, specific optimization of every drive component is important in order to further improve efficiency. At the same time, however, further reductions in fuel consumption and emissions can be achieved by the optimum interplay and the correct choice of components in the system. Here, Continental is able to offer the benefits of 'in-house' system expertise, i.e. the company's own electronics know-how is supplemented by the mechanical expertise achieved by working with the Schaeffler Group and by the exhaust gas aftertreatment technologies provided by Emitec. A fully interdependent and coordinated system is better than the sum of its separate components, stressed Avila.