I wrote a feature for FutureCars.com on the INGOCAR from Valentin Technologies.  The car itself is nice, but not really anything extra-special.  What is special is the underlying platform, which has been in development for decades.  Ingo Valentin, the man behind the breakthrough, is a mechanical engineer specializing in hydraulics.  His chassis/drive train is the most thought-provoking thing I’ve seen in alt-fuels in my entire life.

I’m not just saying that.  Here’s part of the article from FutureCars.  Go there to read all of it.  This is seriously amazing stuff.

INGOCAR from Valentin : Platform of The Future

Images courtesy of Valentin Technologies

by Aaron Turpen

Specs:

• Type: Hydraulic Hybrid
• Class: 5-Seat Wagon
• Developer: Valentin Technologies
• Propulsion system: Hydraulic Dynamics
• Top Speed: 93mph+
• Vehicle range: 300+ miles
• Fuel(s): Gasoline / Diesel / Bio fuels
• Price: Unannounced
• Availability: Design Prototype Only

The manufacturer says

“Electric Hybrids are not more efficient than the best Diesel engine driven cars, but are noticeably heavier and more expensive. The benefits are their low pollution, however, recent studies show that electric vehicles release up to 65% less carbon than current hybrids when the electricity they use was taken into account. (San Francisco Electric Vehicle Association) This means the 170 mpg Hydraulic Hybrid has a noticeably smaller carbon footprint than the best electric cars†(145 mpg).”

Overview

The Valentin INGOCAR concept is really a drive train concept more than it is an alt-fuel vehicle concept. The car’s body design is very interesting due to its aerodynamic properties, but the underlying chassis and powertrain are the real innovations with this vehicle.

Under development for over fifteen years, the first proof-of-concept models tested successfully in 1986 and 87 and have continued forward. The inventor and team lead, Ingo Valentin, is in Elm Grove, Wisconsin and has assembled a team of Wisconsinites along with a mechanical engineer from the Netherlands and a fluid power systems professor in Indiana to perfect the INGOCAR.

The concept is breathtakingly simple, eliminating most of what makes today’s gasoline and diesel automobiles so expensive to manufacture: framing, relatively large displacement engines (compared to the vehicle’s overall size/volume), and the huge losses of energy that occur between the engine, the power train, the wheels, and the braking.

Instead, the car is built on a simple I-shaped tubular frame in which compressedhydraulic fluids are interchanged to create motion in hydro-propelled motors in each wheel.

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