Vehicle hybridization approach for developing countries — Indian perspective

Recent focus on environment impacts and energy efficiency has been a key consideration for any vehicle manufacturer currently. These scenarios have led to the development of hybrid vehicle powertrains to acts as an immediate step towards improving fuel economy and reducing emissions. The hybridization of powertrain leads to an increase in overall cost of the vehicle on account of the anticipated benefits of improving vehicle efficiency. This cost factor plays a critical role in acceptance of technology in developing countries such as India to be a wide success. Under such situations the vehicle manufacturer has to devise a strategy for choosing the right technology (parallel hybrid, series hybrid, B-ISG etc) for the right segment of vehicle that can play a major role in making the vehicle a big success. This paper details the approach for vehicle manufactures to implement different technologies based on the class, segment and type of the vehicle for cost conscious markets of developing countries.