At the end of this year, the automotive supplier Siemens VDO intends to unveil its first fully hybrid demonstration vehicle. In order to provide the automotive manufacturers with the greatest possible room for maneuver with respect to the design of the electric drive, Siemens VDO is optimizing currently available electric motors, such as the asynchronous and synchronous motors, as well as developing new motor drive techniques.

The target markets named by Klaus Egger, member of the executive management group at Siemens VDO Automotive and responsible for the powertrain business segment, are above all the United States and Asia — nine out of 10 hybrid vehicles are sold in the United States. “Worldwide we estimate the market potential for hybrids from 2012 on to be 1.5 million vehicles,” explained Egger. For Siemens VDO, the hybrid drive does not compete with diesel or gas engines in Europe, but is rather a complementary technology with the potential of further lowering fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions, while at the same time improving driving performance.