eDaily: Volvo CE Hybrid Wheel Loader

Volvo Construction Equipment promises that the L220F Hybrid wheel loader will offer 10 percent fuel savings as well as performance and environmental gains when deliveries begin late in 2009. Volvo unveiled a pre-production prototype hybrid at Conexpo-Con/Agg. The heart of the parallel-hybrid system is an ISG, Integrated Starter Generator, fitted between the Volvo D12 engine and transmission. The ISG allows the diesel engine to be turned off when stationary and then almost instantly restarted by rapidly spinning the engine up to optimum working speed using a burst of energy from the high power battery. The ISG can also deliver a massive electric torque boost – up to 700 Nm and 50 kW of instant mechanical energy – to overcome the diesel’s low torque at low engine speeds.