ISE Corporation - Drive System Features

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ISE has also developed a proven hybrid-electric drive system that outperforms competing diesel hybrids. The hybrid system developed by ISE for these buses has several important features, many of which are not available with competing drive systems, including:

Use of a smaller engines, which helps to reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and noise.
Electrically-driven power steering, braking, and air conditioning accessories, which are more efficient than the engine-driven accessories used in conventional vehicles and competing drive systems, and which allow the engine to be stopped without loss of accessory functionality.
Advanced control system featuring an automatic engine start/stop algorithm, which shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops. This results in further improvements in fuel economy and emissions.
Advanced nickel sodium chloride Zebra batteries, which carry 50% more energy per unit weight than the batteries used in the Allison drive system and 300% more than those used in the BAE drive system.

These distinctions are in addition to use of Siemens "ELFA" motors, controllers, and generators, which are more proven than the analogous components used in any competing heavy-duty hybrid-electric drive systems.


	Drive System Features
	ISE has also developed a proven hybrid-electric drive system that outperforms competing diesel hybrids. The hybrid system developed by ISE for these buses has several important features, many of which are not available with competing drive systems, including: Use of a smaller engines, which helps to reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and noise. Electrically-driven power steering, braking, and air conditioning accessories, which are more efficient than the engine-driven accessories used in conventional vehicles and competing drive systems, and which allow the engine to be stopped without loss of accessory functionality. Advanced control system featuring an automatic engine start/stop algorithm, which shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops. This results in further improvements in fuel economy and emissions. Advanced nickel sodium chloride Zebra batteries, which carry 50% more energy per unit weight than the batteries used in the Allison drive system and 300% more than those used in the BAE drive system. These distinctions are in addition to use of Siemens "ELFA" motors, controllers, and generators, which are more proven than the analogous components used in any competing heavy-duty hybrid-electric drive systems.

	Following is a schematic showing the flow of energy within the major components of the ThunderVolt® series hybrid drive system. This process helps to reduce harmful emissions and improve fuel economy, by enabling the recapture of braking energy through regenerative braking, and by using this stored electrical energy to help meet peak vehicle power needs. Availability of "surge" power from batteries and/or ultracapacitors enables the engine in the ISE system to be smaller than in conventional drive systems, and allows the engine to be operated at its most efficient speed. In addition to emissions and efficiency benefits, ISE's ThunderVolt® hybrid systems offer several unique features, including: Wider choice of fuels - ISE offers diesel, gasoline, natural gas, and hydrogen, while most of its competitors only offer diesel. Better adaptability to future technologies - ISE's drive is more adaptable to future technologies than any competing hybrid system. For example, ISE's drive system has been proven to work exceptionally well with fuel cells. Should fuel cells ever become economically viable, users of vehicles with ISE's hybrid system can easily upgrade to use them. More generally, the open architecture of ISE's hybrid system will make it easier to incorporate new improved technologies and components into ISE's system as they become available, including lithium batteries and improved ultracapacitors, both of which ISE expects to become available within the next two years. These competitive advantages do not come as an accident. ISE is unique in the industry in that the Company set out from the very beginning to develop a hybrid system using a total systems approach, optimized to meet vehicle user requirements, and not favoring any particular component or technology. By contrast, ISE's competitors built hybrid systems around particular components they wanted to sell. This accounts, in particular, for why ISE's system architecture is so flexible and why ISE has been more successful than its competitors in incorporating the latest technologies into its system, thereby reaping the performance benefits of these adaptations.