For over a decade, Renault has successfully developed and sold electric vehicles globally, aided by its experience in Formula One and supported by its enthusiastic and passionate engineering, testing and control teams. Through this period, Renault has developed innovative E-TECH hybrid powertrains.
The company has now released a story around Nicolas Fremau, Renault’s Hybrid Architecture Expert, who looks back at how the E-TECH story all started with a LEGO model.
Background
When Renault launched its first EV in 2010, it also set about gaining experience with electrified powertrains – to develop hybrid technology that would provide customers with a smooth transition towards going all-electric, said the company. This transition required engineers to demonstrate that they had the ideal solution for meeting a particular set of specifications.
As per the guidelines, the solution needed to be accessible, light, suitable for vehicles of all sizes and offer a minimum all-electric range of 31 miles (50 km). In other words, it needed to deliver an effective hybrid solution for all.
The solution, E-TECH, was eventually introduced in 2020 across Renault’s Clio, Captur and Megane models, and now has featured in the all-new Arkana.
Inspiration From A LEGO Model
For Nicolas Fremau, it was important to consider the electric motor as the main component in the hybrid powertrain, enabling the car to start up purely in EV mode. This presented a challenge in working out what transmission should be used between the electric motor and petrol engine.
He needed to keep things simple, compact and light. In what was a radical solution, Fremau decided to use a clutchless transmission with gearbox synchronisers, utilising dog clutch technology normally found in motorsport.
The idea germinated when he saw his son playing with LEGO Technic sprockets at home. He thought to himself that it wasn’t too far from what he would like to do. “So, I bought what I needed piece by piece to have all the assembly elements,” said Fremau.
He used the Christmas holidays to make a model of the innovative transmission out of LEGO that he’d first imagined on paper.
“I had the idea of doing this first to help me understand what to do. After about 20 hours of work under the slightly surprised eye of my son, the model was born,” he said.
This wasn’t a case of just fitting bricks together. Nicolas had to assemble the different axes and transmission rings, glue them and drill them to fit into a cradle, as well as motorise the whole system. It was a piece of engineering that allowed him to live-test the different modes of operation between the engines.
The process of trialling the possible modes of operation also allowed Fremau to discover new ones that he hadn’t previously thought of in theoretical analysis, the release stated. This strengthened his conviction. He knew he was on the right track with this prototype, which in all probability was the least expensive in Renault’s history.
If We Can Make It In LEGO, It Will Work!
Once he was convinced with the solution himself, Fremau had to ‘gamble’ presenting this model to the team – Gérard Detourbet, Project Manager and the ‘father’ of the first Dacia range, who knew all about simplified, low-cost solutions; and Rémi Bastien, Director of Research.
“Renault has always been a very open company, especially when it comes to research. But the day I brought the model to Gérard Detourbet and Rémi Bastien, I didn’t know how they would react. They walked around the model, they touched it and they felt that we had a real object,” Fremau said.
What Detourbet said, will always remain in Fremau’s mind – “If we can make it in LEGO, it will work!”
Detourbet’s approval meant Fremau and his colleagues had to make the commitment to bring this concept to life in a car that would be on sale in just 18 months. It was a challenge for the entire research engineering department, with the mobilisation of skills of people in control, mechanical design, etc, recalled Fremau.
For the small team of enthusiasts committed to Renault’s electrified future, and this new hybrid powertrain as part of it, the hard work had just begun. In line with environmental challenges, the Group’s ambition is to achieve carbon neutrality in Europe by 2050.