KERS is the “in” thing in the automotive world. Its been here since the 1950′s, but is getting the stakes now. First proposed by physicist Richard Feynman. Regenerative braking is a form of KERS. Some complex implmentations are by Zytek, Flybrid, Totorak and Xtrac. And now since F1 teams have the option to incorporate these into their cars, its gonna be a factor for the 2009 F1 season. 60 or 80 kW is the limit for F1. Think of it as 60 kW of nitrous boost, F1 will be seeing lots of overtakes now. Hydraulic KERS are however being used currently in trucks and vans, most notably the UPS trucks. And from a news that I have they were also used in the Coke vending vans used in the last olympics held in Beijing in 2008, employing solutions made by Eaton. The BMW Sauber team has already reportedly tried the KERS, most recently in Valencia this month in their 4 day private test. They are it seems on a pneumatic / hydraulic system. KTM has secretly tested the KERS system on one of their bikes in some race. Peugeot 908 HY is having a KERS. Mc Laren is working on F1 KERS with Freescale from news obtained from greencarcongress. From news here it seems that it is an electromechanical KERS. Toyota is going the electric way by using capacitors to store the energy.
The various implementations : Zytek is a company making hybrid electric motors, electric and hybrid drive trains, engine management systems, etc. Flybrid systems store the energy in a high speed flywheel (60k + RPM), which is vacuum sealed, via a CVT, the CVT ratio being the control for energy storage and recovery. Torotrak is a manufacturer of powertrain. They have licensed some of their technology to flybrid and xtrac. Infinitely variable transmission is something interesting amongst things which they have. Some info on the same can be found here.
I suppose this idea should catch up with trains and bikes as well.
A short video of KERS in F1 by Williams
