Press releases

Carnot Institutes - New PIME project focusing on smart low-carbon vehicles

03 January 2011

The Innovative Platform for Better Energy Efficiency (PIME - Plate-forme Innovante pour une Meilleure Efficacité énergétique) project focusing on the theme of smart low-carbon vehicles has been launched for a 3-year period. Led by IFP Energies nouvelles’s IFP-Moteurs Carnot Institute, PIME falls within the framework of the Carnot Institutes’ Land Transport Alliance, which aims to step up partnership-based research in this field. It is a joint project involving several Carnot Institutes: CEA-LETI, Energies du Futur, ESP, I@L and IFP-Moteurs.

PIME is focusing on three development avenues in particular: rechargeable hybrid vehicles, information and communication technologies serving energy efficiency, and flex fuel vehicles powered by ethanol-gasoline blends.

PIME will use IFP Energies nouvelles’s rechargeable hybrid demonstrator vehicle, Flex Hybrid, which is in the process of being developed. Two types of sensors will be proposed by CEA-LETI: imagers for the detection of other vehicles and networked wireless accelerometers inside the vehicle. The IFP-Moteurs Carnot Institute will use the information supplied by the sensors in order to optimize the distribution of power between the electric motor and the IC engine. The Ingénierie@Lyon Carnot Institute will study the optimal location of the sensors and the possibility of powering these sensors by energy recovered from vibrations. The ESP Carnot Institute will be responsible for detecting and locating sensor faults and for the electromagnetic compatibility of the sensor network.

The role of the IFP-Moteurs and ESP Carnot Institutes will be to help control fuel combustion in order to be able to power the IC engine with an ethanol-gasoline blend. Finally, innovative power electronics will be studied by Energies du Futur, working closely with the IFP-Moteurs Carnot Institute.

About the Carnot Institute network
The Carnot Institute network, which is led by the Association of Carnot Institutes, consists of 33 institutes bringing together 13,000 research professionals committed to promoting technology transfer and developing research partnerships with industry, attentive to their requirements and guaranteeing a high level of professionalism.
The Carnot Institutes are organized into area or sector-based alliances, the aim being to leverage their significant interactions and synergies in order to offer industry a more comprehensive range of R&D services that more effectively meet their needs.
More information: www.instituts-carnot.eu

About the Carnot Land Transport Alliance
Created midway through 2009, the Carnot Land Transport Alliance brings together 20 Carnot Institutes. The fields covered concern all the Research and Innovation problems involved in road, rail, sea and river transport, with a broadly multidisciplinary approach. The five main research areas are as follows:

• energy and transport,
• transport, health, safety and security,
• mobility, interoperability and infrastructure,
• ICT for transport,
• transport architecture / structure and materials.

More information: http://www.instituts-carnot.eu/fr/transport