The first ambulance with hybrid engine

Mechanical engineering and process engineering engineers at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg are developing the first ambulance with hybrid drive. As part of a cooperation with the company Ambulanz Mobile from Schönebeck, the hybrid drive is being produced by combining a diesel engine in the front and an electric engine on the rear axle. Additional battery banks supply the electric engine with enough energy. As a result, the user can drive using the standard drive or purely electrically.

The electric drive has an output of 60 kW. As a result, the system is able to accelerate the patient transfer ambulance to 90 km/h. The maximum speed can be configured to the customer’s requirement or the purpose. The electric drive’s range is 70 kilometres.

Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg is already involved in various vehicle body projects with patient transfer ambulances, emergency ambulances and paramedic vehicles.

Patient transport without any emissions

“Hybrids with the power branched over the rear and front axle are still rather rare. Mechanically decoupling the powertrain was the greatest challenge in developing the eDrive module,” explains Dipl.-Ing. Gerd Wagenhaus from the Institute of Ergonomics, Manufacturing Systems and Automation at University Magdeburg. “This made it possible to design the electric drive exactly to suit the different deployment scenarios in this intralogistic area, i.e. for hospital transport and overland transport as well.”

“So far there are not any hybrid vehicles from manufacturers of basic vehicles for patient transport ambulances. We want to close this gap, as our customers should also be able to travel without any emissions within the hospital area and on longer patient transports”, says Hans-Jürgen Schwarz, CEO of Ambulanz Mobile. Series approval of the prototype is planned.

The work came about as part of the “COMO - Competence in Mobility” joint project, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt.

Ambulanz Mobile GmbH & Co. KG based in Schönebeck (Elbe) was founded in 1991 with six employees and is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of special vehicles today. Approximately 1,600 vehicles are upgraded for emergency deployment, patient transport and disaster relief every year at the company with roughly 250 employees.

 

Source: www.ovgu.de