Audi's new suspension turns rough roads into electricity and saves fuel
Carmakers have already figured out how to capture the energy lost to slowing a car. It's called regenerative braking.
Rather than slow a vehicle with conventional friction brakes that turn forward momentum into heat, hybrid and EVs spin their electric motors in reverse. This both slows the car and generates electricity, which later can be used to power the vehicle.
Turns out, there's still more energy to be captured that is currently going to waste in modern automobiles: the kinetic energy generated by the movement of the car's suspension.
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Engineers at Audi have created a prototype shock absorber, called 'eROT,' that both smoothes the ride on a bumpy road and generates electricity that -- just like regenerative braking -- can be used to propell the car and, in turn, save fuel.
On the eROT system, traditional shock absorbers are replaced with horizontally mounted electric motors. Each little movement of the wheel, is converted into electricity which is then fed into to the car's onboard 48-volt battery system.
This results in better fuel economy and fewer tailpipe pollutants. Audi brags that the eROT can reduce emissions by 4.8 grams of CO2 per mile driven. While that's hard to fathom, suffice it to say that something is better than nothing.
On top of turning uneven, dilapidated and bumpy roads into usable electricity, the eROT allows for a suspension feel easily adjustable with software. That means you can dial your car's ride to precisely your liking.
Delightfully, although eROT is currently in the prototype stages, Audi says that it intends to put the energy-saving and ride-perfecting eROT into production cars in the future.
Topics Cars
