After
shipping a batch of ten vehicles to a company in
Charlotte a week ago, Chrysler Group has delivered four
further demonstration fleet plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) Ram 1500 pickup trucks to the City of
Auburn Hills, Michigan as it continues to extends these
trials.
The PHEV Ram 1500 pickups, delivered by Abdullah Bazzi,
senior manager of the Chrysler Group’s advanced hybrid
vehicle project, are part of a national demonstration
fleet of of one hundred and forty vehicles that will be
used during the next three years to evaluate customer
usage, drive cycles, charging, thermal management, fuel
economy, emissions and impact on the region’s electric
grid - although the programme is more cosmetic and there
are no production plans. In addition to Auburn Hills,
seven other partners across the United States are slated
to receive vehicles for demonstration and testing
purposes.
“Cities have been carefully selected to help Chrysler
Group collect a wide range of data,” explained Abdullah
Bazzi, senior manager of Chrysler’s advanced hybrid
vehicle project. “Auburn Hills is in our backyard and
offers a combination of suburban and rural driving that
is ideal as a test cycle for these vehicles. The
constant charging will allow us to measure the impact on
battery life and charging efficiency.”
Chrysler Group has delivered Ram 1500 PHEV trucks to the
city of Yuma, Ariz., to take full advantage of hot
weather and conduct thermal testing in the desert
southwest. Other cities that have received the
demonstration PHEV Ram 1500 pickups include San
Francisco and Sacramento, Calif., Charlotte, N.C.,
Boston, Mass., and Albany, N.Y.
“Auburn Hills has worked diligently to implement
policies and procedures to create a municipal
infrastructure that accommodates the growing use of
hybrid electric vehicles,” said Pete Auger, Auburn Hills
city manager. “We have taken a leading role in smart
planning for alternative energy options that will fuel
tomorrow’s vehicles.”
Auburn Hills currently has seven charging stations.
Three EV charging stations are located downtown and two
each are located on the municipal campus and at the
Department of Public Service. Strictly a demonstration
program, there are no plans for a production version of
the PHEV Ram 1500 truck at this time. Cities and states
were selected to evaluate temperature extremes, urban
traffic cycles and diverse climates and geographies.
The PHEV Ram 1500 includes a liquid-cooled 12.9kWhr
lithium ion battery pack and a 6.6 kilowatt (kW)
on-board charger. Additional features include AC power
generation of up to 6.6kW, directional charging, reverse
power flow and full regenerative braking used to capture
more energy. For fuel economy improvements, the front
axle of the four-wheel-drive automatic transmission can
be disconnected when not needed. The powertrain also
includes a 5.7-liter HEMI® V-8 engine and a two-mode
hybrid transmission. The 5.7-liter HEMI is equipped with
a Fuel Saver technology that improves fuel efficiency at
highway speeds by shutting down fuel delivery to up to
four cylinders.
The battery pack is located under the second-row seat of
the pickup and is liquid cooled to help maintain a
consistent battery temperature. For on-the-job
electrical power tools, a 240 volt/30 amp four-prong
outlet and 120volt/20amp duplex outlet power strip is
located in the rear box.
Urban use will be tracked to measure battery performance
and overall hybrid efficiency with the demonstration
fleet of pickups. Other uses include military bases
where vehicles will be able to provide power back to the
electric grid in what is termed “reverse power flow” of
up to 6.6kW.
Funding for the program in part is provided by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 through
the Transportation Electrification Initiative sponsored
by the DOE. The grant, totaling $48 million from DOE and
$49.4 million from Chrysler Group, was designed to
develop vehicles that will be cost efficient for
consumers, satisfy safety concerns of daily travel
without recharging and help reduce dependence on foreign
oil. The Chrysler Group also is developing a similar
fleet of 25 Chrysler Town & Country minivans with
plug-in hybrid technology for demonstration and
evaluation that will be allocated to select cities later
this year.
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