A vehicle includes a prime mover, such as an internal combustion engine, driving a transmission shaft, a kinetic energy recuperation system, including an electric machine fitted on the transmission shaft and a supercapacitor for recovering the braking energy delivered by the electric machine, at least one solar panel, that is connected to the electric machine and to the supercapacitor, and a controller that is configured to direct the energy captured by the solar panel(s) either to the electric machine or to the supercapacitor as a function of the torque demand on transmission shaft.

A vehicle includes a prime mover, such as an internal combustion engine, driving a transmission shaft, a kinetic energy recuperation system, including an electric machine fitted on the transmission shaft and a supercapacitor for recovering the braking energy delivered by the electric machine, at least one solar panel, that is connected to the electric machine and to the supercapacitor, and a controller that is configured to direct the energy captured by the solar panel(s) either to the electric machine or to the supercapacitor as a function of the torque demand on transmission shaft.

A shifter assembly includes a shift lever, a base, a coupling member having a toothed member and pivotably coupling the shift lever to the base, and a speed sensitive damping arrangement housed in the base. The damping arrangement includes a housing associated with the base and defining an internal cavity, a shaft disposed in the cavity and having an end extending from the housing, and a gear coupled to the shaft end extending from the housing and configured for rotation therewith, where the gear is meshingly engaged with the toothed member of the coupling member such that pivotable movement of the coupling member rotates the gear and the shaft. The gear is configured to rotate faster than the shift lever such that damping to movement of the shift lever provided by the damping arrangement is proportional to a square of a speed of movement of the shift lever.

A speed change apparatus includes a transmission, a change mechanism configured to move a gear or gears so as to change gear position, a force accumulation mechanism which includes a shift spindle and a force accumulation spring. The shift spindle is provided, in a rotatable manner, with a master arm configured to operate the change mechanism. A return spring is configured to bias the master arm toward a neutral position. A sub return spring, separate from the return spring and which directly biases the shift spindle toward the neutral position, is provided between the shift spindle and a case member.

The present invention relates to a shift lever assembly for controlling the transmission of a vehicle, said shift lever assembly (1) comprising a housing (2) comprising a detent track (290) having a number of seats, a shift lever (31) arranged to pivot about a first axis (), located within said housing (2), along a first gate (73) between a number of positions corresponding to different modes of transmission, the positions of the shift lever (31) corresponding to one position each along said detent track (290), a sensor assembly (6) for detecting the position of the shift lever (31) in relation to said detent track (290), said sensor assembly (6) comprising a first member (63) connected to and jointly displaceable with said shift lever (31) along said first gate (73), and a second member (69) mounted on a carrier body (60), said first member (63) and said second member (69) being arranged to interact for detecting the position of the shift lever (31) in relation to said detent track (290), wherein said carrier body (60) is displaceable in at least one direction within said housing (2) in a first stage of assembly and is arranged to be fixed in said direction at a predetermined position in relation to said detent track (290) in a second stage of assembly.

A transmission gear shifter arrangement includes a shift lever assembly and a position sensor assembly each associated with a shifter housing. The shift lever assembly is operably coupled to a vehicle transmission, and is selectively movable to gear select positions corresponding to respective transmission gears. The position sensor assembly includes a light source and light sensor, where the sensor is configured to selectively receive light emitted from the light source. When the shift lever assembly is in a predetermined one of the gear select positions, the shift lever assembly enables light emitted from the light source to reach the sensor thereby indicating that the shift lever assembly is in the predetermined one of the gear select positions, and when the shift lever assembly is not in the predetermined one of the gear select positions, the shift lever assembly prevents light emitted from the light source from reaching the sensor.

A shifter assembly for a motor vehicle includes a housing, a detent gate connected to the housing, a shifter lever moveable between at least a park position and a neutral position, a locking button movably supported by the shifter lever that contacts the detent gate when in a first position and that spaces apart from the detent gate when depressed to a second position, and a pawl moveable between an unlock position and a lock position. The pawl prevents the shifter lever from moving out of the park or neutral positions and prevents the locking button from being depressed when in the lock position.

A shift drum angle detecting device for a transmission includes shift forks, a shift drum, a first sensor shaft, a first angle sensor, a speed increasing mechanism, and a second angle sensor. The first angle sensor is to detect a rotational angle of the first sensor shaft to output a first output value based on the rotational angle. The speed increasing mechanism includes a speed increasing drive member, a speed increasing driven member, and a second sensor shaft. The second angle sensor is provided to the second sensor shaft to detect a rotational angle of the second sensor shaft and to output a second output value based on the rotational angle. A rotational angle of the shift drum is to be detected based on the first output value output from the first angle sensor and the second output value output from the second angle sensor.

Provided herein is a coating method for a vehicle shift fork, and the method includes: preparing a FeCrMo-based composition such as a powder; pretreating the shift fork by washing a pad part of the shift fork to remove impurities; forming a coating layer on the pad part using the FeCrMo-based powder by high velocity oxygen fuel spraying (HVOF) method; and cooling the coating layer at a rate of about 10.sup.6 to about 10.sup.8 K/s to form an amorphous coating layer. Further provided are an amorphous coating formed by high velocity oxygen fuel spraying (HVOF) method and a shift fork including the amorphous coating.

A system for ignition control and gear selection of a vehicle is described herein. The system comprises a removable device, a docking portion of the vehicle, and a control module of the vehicle. The removable device comprises identification circuitry; and a body housing the identification circuitry. The docking portion of the vehicle is configured to receive the removable device. The control module of the vehicle is configured to identify the removable device prior to ignition of the vehicle, the removable device identified based, at least in part, on the identification circuitry; cause ignition of the vehicle in response to detecting a first interaction with the removable device; and cause the vehicle to change from a first gear to a second gear in response to detecting a second interaction with the removable device.