pseudosphere
07 Sep 2017
Re: AGM 29th September " I'm particularly suspicious at the Allison exclusive license for HGV, which they never did anything to take forward."Torotrak have stated that Allison's exclusivity expires if they do not continue developing the IVT with the intent of production. This may, of course, have been another fib but without any access or information, regarding the contract, shareholders are unlikely to find out - barring any new licence deals.I also wish Torotrak would reveal the identity of the EBTM, given that this project lapsed years ago. as would any associated NDA.The fact that they have not, is suspicious in itself!
Arapahoe
06 Sep 2017
Re: AGM 29th September From the Annual Report:-"Annual General Meeting 2017I am pleased to announce the details of our Annual General Meeting (“AGM”
which we are holding at 12.00 noon on Friday 29 September 2017 at theoffices of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP, 1 Wood Street, London, EC2V 7WS."RegardsArapahoe
John Henry Payne
06 Sep 2017
AGM 29th September Can someone say where this will be held ?I went to the meeting at Leyland on 31st May, but there was nothing worth reporting.I'm angry at many aspects of this company's record, and at my own folly at allowing optimism to outweigh obvious doubts. I'm particularly suspicious at the Allinson exclusive license for HGV, which they never did anything to take forward.Just waiting now to see if anything surprising comes up to make the 'shareholder value' worth anything as they wind down.Best wishes to all fellow survivors.
ABAPer
05 Sep 2017
Re: peak oil No change on Peak Oil.We are nowhere near the "electrification of everything"! What about all the other uses we put fossil fuel to? What about countries that cannot afford electrification? A few percentage points of total car sales in electrified vehicles and a promise to ban ONLY those vehicles that are pure ICE by 2040 doesn't sound particularly like the electrification of everything! As long as the vehicles have some form of electric or other non-ICE propulsion (and in most hybrids the ICE is the sole power source, the battery and motor serve only to reclaim braking energy and smooth out demand). Third world countries will continue to increase their use of fossil fuels as they attempt to drag themselves into what they perceive to be the Western worlds level of energy intense nirvana. If we in the west reduce our usage of fossil fuels in a material way this will simply reduce demand and therefore prices of said fossil fuels which in turn will materially improve the utility of these fuels in third world countries and, as we have seen time and time again, Jevon's Paradox will prevail. The use of all this now cheap and unwanted fossil fuel in these areas will likely be nowhere near as cleanly processed into usable energy. I would not be surprised if the surplus of now cheap unwanted fossil fuel powered vehicles would, for profit, find there way to these locations also.I would also point out that the discussion around Peak Oil moved on some considerable time ago to encompass Peak Everything... The economic evidence of this is all around us to see now as ever lower interest rates in the so called advanced economies fail to resuscitate growth that in a world of finite resources was clearly never infinite in nature. And in fact is now, as we stand at the inflection point of global economic growth, terminally stalled awaiting its move to the new descending pattern. I call this Regression (a future of successive periods of contraction with intermittent periods of smaller magnitude recoveries) this being the polar opposite to the previous Growth period...RegardsJon
Cranemech
31 Aug 2017
peak oil Seeing has there's been no postings for 11 days, we would not want the excellent minds on this board to stagnate. Due to the electrification of things, what would be the prognosis on PEAK Oil. RC
i network
15 Aug 2017
Re: Mazda - compression ignition engine Please see my post last April about Mazda and HCCI: [link] have suggested for years that HCCI could be a forerunner to TRK selling its technology. This initially was about an IVT main tranny, as an HCCI engine weakness is its inability to accelerate rpm effectively. In other engine designs ignition timing, and fuel mixture are the main means for this. In HCCI however, the homogenised charge (the HI part) means the fuel/air ratio is effectively fixed in the short term; and the ignition timing, is fixed due to compression ignition (the CI part). The amount of homogenised charge may well increase torque however. These limits to HCCI could well be addressed with a torque controlled IVT main transmission.I asked DE about this at an AGM many years back, eliciting laughter and a delayed answer from him, where he only admitted to knowing what HCCI was, and no more. This was when Scania was possibly the only company public about its HCCI development work. There was evidence this was the company DE alluded to when saying his mother-in-law recognised this company's name.A couple of years later, I asked an engineer (I don't remember his name) giving the tech talk, and who had recently left Ford, and then soon left TRK, who gave a hostile reaction, saying that HCCI did not work, and he would not discuss it further. I believe that Mazda must have been part of Ford when he was there.At a much more recent TRKSHG meeting with Adam, when discussing the use of v-charge for Miller cycle and Atkinson cycle engines, I asked about HCCI again, and was again met with laughter, and an admission he knew what this was, but would say no more., However, the view about v-charge was that an electrical super charger, limited to a 48v infrastructure, and by the capacity of the battery, could compete with v-charge. I believe the Toyota Pirus already uses a Miller cycle engine, and may well use an electrical supercharger in this way. Obviously a hybrid may well have a large enough battery, albeit this use of it may limit its range/effectiveness of electric drive.It appears to me that the main obstacle to using TRK tech is a dependence on a totally new (not yet market tested) tech for the essential part of a car's drive. meaning that they cannot get it insured against recalls. As v-charge is not essential for a car using it to operate, this gets around this problem.Mazda, when announcing its development of HCCI. made a point that it was developing electrical solutions as well, and HCCI was seen as an intermittent tech. This may well indicate that HCCI might be used in a similar way to the Miller Pirus solution.I do think Mazda may well choose to try TRK's IVT in a limited production model initially,, gambling its own funds against recalls. However there is another possibility. Mazda may try to use a series hybrid with the HCCI using the electric drive as an IVT, albeit may not be as efficient as a TRK IVT.My personal view is that the entire automotive industry is delaying real new tech, due to the development of self drive cars, which could radically change the direction of that market. During the Millennium celebrations, specifically at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, The Ford exhibit predicted that self drive cars would displace privately owned cars, and the future of personal transport would be robotic vehicles never parked, but moving from job to job, called up by mobile phones. The purchasers/owners for such cars, could well be the OEMs, and a determinate of their viability might be based on recharging/refueling time, and its time earning payback. That might well be a drive for a more logical industry, albeit probably too late for TRK.However, the off road construction and mining industry are hungry for energy saving solutions that are not electrical, due to issues in the environments where they are us
srsm
15 Aug 2017
Electric: not so fast [link] 95% of vehicles will still have combustion engines in 2025, and about 30% will have some form of gasoline-electric system. Just 5% will be purely electric""So, what will come in between traditional cars and electric cars? Plug-in hybrids — lots of them. Belittled by fans of electric cars, they will account for 20% of the market by 2023""most auto executives agree with him but are reluctant to say so publicly. In his opinion, electric cars will account for no more than 6% of sales worldwide by 2025 — if that. “They know what’s going to happen, but they have to say what is going to be popular to be perceived as a progressive company,” Walker said."But will vCharge be useful for these hybrids? Some suggest the main problem is a shift to 48v systems which was on the cards 10+ years ago. And then electric vCharge competitors will become practical. Sigh....But at least the ICE does remain popular, if only in secret for PR reasons.
pseudosphere
14 Aug 2017
Re: FLYwheel "Has TRK already spent this money? Never seen any RNS mentioning hybrids."It was in the latest Torotrak Annual Report - mention of electromechanically-coupled flywheel for hybrid car. I suppose they could resurrect the 2008 'Flywheel Capacitor' - flywheel with non-integral (external) motor-generator? How this essentially differs from the GKN Gyrodrive system, other than the external, rather than internal, motor-generator is a bit of a mystery. Reinventing the wheel (or flywheel motorgenerator, in this case), similar inverters and control system etc. Have they spent the money yet? Unlikely, if the EU issue phased payments, because that probably implies a requirement for some sort of delivery. The project ends in March 2020 and 3 demonstrator vehicles are being built (different forms of hybrid), so they might not even start for a year or more - assuming the Company is still in existence. Not sure that even they could blow the entire budget, on lunches in Michelin Star restaurants (let's call it networking) but who knows with this shower and their track record, thus far?
marcher
14 Aug 2017
Re: FLYwheel The EU Cordis Advice project runs "from 2017-04-01 to 2020-03-31, ongoing project" The EU contribution to TRK is EUR 680 244,25ADvancing user acceptance of general purpose hybridized Vehicles by Improved Cost and Efficiency.Has TRK already spent this money? Never seen any RNS mentioning hybrids.[link]
StonyB
14 Aug 2017
Re: FLYwheel From 2017-02-01 to 2017-06-30, closed project ~
nvw
14 Aug 2017
FLYwheel Low-cost, High-efficiency FLYwheel Energy Recovery System for On-highway Commercial Vehicles[link]
ABAPer
10 Aug 2017
Re: Mazda - compression ignition engine I would be willing to bet Mazda will be the winners here if they don't bottle it. As the rest of the brain washed automotive industry realises that electrification on the scale our governments our hoping will emerge is unlikely to be viable the like of Mazda will find a good market for their hard work. Provided of course they don't find reliability and emissions issues like they did with rotary engines.
pseudosphere
09 Aug 2017
Re: Mazda - compression ignition engine The Mazda SKYACTIV-X engine design requires a supercharger. I hope that Torotrak didn't manage to miss yet another opportunity for getting V-Charge into production? Can't remember TRK ever previously working with Mazda - unlike the Nissan GT-R LM debacle, with Flybrid, that probably soured any future potential commercial relationships with Nissan/Renault.Mazda developed their original SUSTAINABLE ZOOM-ZOOM strategy in 2007 (probably sounds better in Japanese?) and now we have :SUSTAINABLE ZOOM-ZOOM 2030[link]
pi4
08 Aug 2017
Re: Germany, carmakers agree steps to cut di... Adam - get on the phone to these guys in Germany, send them a brochure or two. Get them in the post tomorrow.Surely V -charge is a cheaper and better option than redesigning cleaner exhaust systems?Pi
old bull
08 Aug 2017
Re: Germany, carmakers agree steps to cut di... interesting that they are trying to avvert a ban on diesels, and offering incentives to buy new diesels. There is a place for technologies that can reduce emissions.
