Ultracapacitors For Automotive Applications

The automotive market is potentially the largest and most lucrative market segment and is the ultimate target for all major ultracapacitor manufacturers. This market is also requires extremely demanding performance, reliability, safety, cycle life and cost. It is a commitment of time and resources as most programs have long and complex development cycles that span numerous years. It is clear that only a few leading manufacturers have any real chance of supplying to this segment. The two most obvious opportunities within the automotive segment is braking energy recuperation and reuse for various hybrid platforms, such as micro-, mini-, mild- and full-hybrids, and boardnet stabilization to resolve voltage sags in today’s heavily electrified cars. There has been continuing work in distributed energy storage for various subsystems as well. The heavy hybrid market is already the most mature and commercialized sector and continues to expand at rapid rate. The ultracapacitors function as energy storage to store and reuse regenerative braking energy in hybrid bus and trucks. The same technical concept can be applied to large trains and trams, whether as an onboard, or stationary, energy storage system. There are other opportunities within this space such as cold starting of diesel engine for trucks and trains, and as emergency power to various subsystems.