Reproduced by kind permission of Lotus Engineering from an article in its proActive e-magazine. To subscribe to proActive click on www.just-auto.com/proactive or visit www.grouplotus.com.

Every major manufacturer in the world is now developing hard or soft hybrid prototypes. Malaysia’s Proton is no exception – and they have a technological advantage. They own Lotus Engineering... In this story we look at how Lotus designed and developed a hybrid system that could be retrospectively engineered into a Proton Gen 2. The result is a car that can be run as a micro-hybrid, full hybrid or pure electric car.

With these issues in mind, our parent company Proton approached Lotus Engineering to develop a parallel hybrid system that could be applied to a Proton Gen.2 compact midsize car with a 1.6 litre gasoline engine, with minimal impact to the base vehicle, and utilising where possible off the shelf technologies. This ‘retro–integration’ approach is a key advantage of the EVE (Efficient, Viable, Environmental) Hybrid which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year.

The conclusion of the concept study was to develop a parallel hybrid combined with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) in a twin clutch arrangement as seen in this diagram. This would allow Lotus to demonstrate both micro and full hybrid capabilities combined with a continually Variable Transmission with no compromise to the driving experience of the vehicle and offering a near–term solution.