Volvo Engines-The Big Player In The Premium Automotive Landscape

Volvo Engines-The Big Player In The Premium Automotive Landscape

Caterpillar’s new ‘electric-drive’ loader – the 988K XE – apparently delivers 25% greater overall efficiency and up to 10% more productivity in load-and-carry applications.

The new 988K XE is Caterpillar’s first wheel loader to utilize this sort of electric-drive transmission system. While too big for agricultural applications, can we expect to see this technology filter down to machines more suited to the needs of farmers and agricultural contractors?

The new 988K XE is claimed to increase overall efficiency by 25%, with this rising to as much as 49% in face-loading applications, compared with the existing 988K model. This, says Caterpillar, reduces costs, greenhouse gas emissions and the machine’s carbon footprint.

Cat’s electric-drive technology, which is built into the new 988K XE, is also claimed to increase the engine’s life expectancy. It offers extended oil change intervals of 2,000 hours. The new electric-drive wheel loader also uses 40% less powertrain oil (due to the use of electric components in many areas of the drivetrain).

Moreover, Caterpillar says that the electric system’s motor, generator and inverter are designed to last through the second engine life – with “minimum maintenance”. Additionally, the electric-drive design is claimed to “increase engine life by up to 3,500 hours”.

Volvo Hybrid Loader Promises Big Savings

Last month, AgriLand brought you news of Volvo CE’s (Volvo Construction Equipment’s) LX1 prototype electric hybrid wheel loader.

The manufacturer claims that the LX1 has achieved a dramatic improvement in fuel efficiency during tests, compared to its conventional counterparts.

The LX1 incorporates a driveline that consists of electric drive motors mounted at the wheels, electric-driven hydraulics, a battery energy storage system, a significantly smaller diesel engine and new machine architecture.

As well as the claimed improvement in fuel efficiency, the LX1 is also said to offer a significant reduction in noise pollution compared to its conventional counterparts. The prototype – which has 98% new parts and a fundamentally new machine design – is capable of doing the work of a wheel loader that’s one size larger, according to Volvo.

Volvo Adds Electrons Across the Board

Volvo Cars isn’t the biggest player in the premium automotive landscape, but it seems to be one of the smartest in the years since being acquired by China’s Geely Group. Sweden’s sole surviving volume automaker has moved aggressively to reinforce its safety-oriented heritage with the development of automated vehicles. And the company just made the news, as CEO Hakan Samuelsson announced that the brand was going “all electric” from 2019.

Read Past the Headline

While this was an important announcement about Volvo’s environmentally friendly intentions, it also illustrates the importance of reading past the headline. Readers would be forgiven for thinking that Volvo wants to transform itself into the next Tesla. The reality is that between 2019 and 2021, all products from the Volvo Car Group will transition to having some degree of electric propulsion. That includes three new battery EVs (BEVs) from the main Volvo brand and two other BEVs from the high performance Polestar sub-brand.

But the internal combustion engine isn’t going anywhere just yet—it’s just getting an assist from electric motors and batteries. In 2015, Volvo introduced its Twin-Engine system, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) propulsion system, on its large XC90 SUV and has since expanded availability to the other 90 series models, including a sedan and station wagon. The new midsize 60 series that shares a platform architecture with the 90s will also get this system.

Based on an animation released by the automaker, Volvo’s baseline setup from 2019 will be a 48V mild-hybrid that will utilize a belted starter-generator configuration. Along with a likely lithium ion battery with a capacity in the 0.5 kWh range, this should boost fuel efficiency by about 10%-15%. Navigant Research’s Low Voltage Vehicle Electrification report projects nearly 9 million global sales annually of 48V systems by 2025.

Engineering Made Easy

For a company that only sold a bit over half a million cars globally in 2016, this might seem like a lot of complexity. But Volvo only has three model lines going forward with several body styles, the compact 40 series and the larger 60 and 90. The larger vehicles share the scalable platform architecture and the 40s will use a new smaller platform. Across this range, Volvo is only using one engine family that currently has gas and diesel four-cylinder engines with natural aspiration, turbocharging, and combined turbo and supercharging. With a single engine family, engineering 48V capability should be straightforward. Even the PHEVs utilize this same engine with a through-the-road hybrid architecture that uses the engine with a conventional automatic transmission at the front axle and electric drive for the rear axle.

With a limited component set on only two core platforms, this transition should be manageable for a company of Volvo’s size. Geely can also leverage the technologies developed by Volvo, just as prior owner Ford did for many years. Numerous Ford vehicles, including the Taurus, Flex, and Explorer, still utilize a platform originally designed by Volvo in the 1990s. Geely can take both the powertrain and automation technologies developed by Volvo for its domestic brands, including the new Lync & Co. EVs.

For Volvo, utilizing light and strong electrification across its premium vehicle lineup will help it to meet increasingly stringent efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards in Europe and China, where it has seen significant growth. All automakers are looking at varying degrees of electrification as a strategy to meet these standards in a cost-effective way, as noted in Navigant Research’s Automotive Fuel Efficiency Strategies report. The difference is mostly in degree and configuration. As a premium brand, Volvo’s customers are also more likely to absorb the added cost of these technologies.

Volvo Generator For Sale

We supply multiple brands of generator set, such as: Cummins, Volvo, Deutz, Doosan Daewoo, MTU, Ricardo, Perkins, Shangchai, Weichai, Yuchai etc. The style of genset is varied, such as: container genset, trailer genset, portable trailer genset, soundproof genset, low noise genset, and silent genset, etc. Besides, we also supply design and construction of the noise reduction project up to the customer's requirements.

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