A tire to recharge the battery of an electric car?
The North American manufacturer Goodyear has unveiled a concept car tire combining thermoelectric and piezoelectric components that transform heat and electricity in motion. What bring additional energy may extend the range of electric vehicles.
There are a few months ago, we mentioned the work carried out in the US by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the Department of Energy. The team managed to extract carbon black from used tires and used it to manufacture the anode of a lithium-ion battery. In a radically opposite approach, Goodyear is working on a tire capable of generating electricity to charge the batteries of an electric or hybrid car. At the Geneva Motor Show, which began last week, the manufacturer has unveiled what is still only a concept called BH03.
This tire associate thermoelectric and piezoelectric components. For the former, it would be a rubber texture called "ultra black" can absorb the heat generated when the vehicle is parked and the tire is heated by the sun. In the case of the piezoelectric components, it is question of a braiding incorporated in the carcass which would react to rolling and deformation of the tire. Goodyear provides no precise data on the performance of BH03, merely stating that it could extend the range of an electric car. Energy recovery remains one of the crucial areas of research for manufacturers. This Goodyear seems to be an attractive idea, at least on paper.
A specific rim to recover energy
However, many technical issues remain, particularly about the conversion system and battery power. The concept suggests that the tire should be associated with a specific rim which could make the connection with the energy recovery module. It is also unclear whether electricity production would be correlated to the vehicle speed. Moreover, Goodyear did not advance any arrival of such a product.
This project recalls another equally ambitious on which board the German brand Audi. Its R & D department is exploring the possibility of using the car's shock absorbers to generate electricity. Like a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS), the idea is to capture the heat produced by the heating of the suspension which, according to Audi, can reach between 100 and 125 ° C. Audi have developed a shock absorber incorporating a synchronous generator with the mechanical movement of the workpiece. But again, the manufacturer does not indicate specific roadmap.
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