Method of recuperating energy from a motor vehicle

A motor vehicle with a fuel supply system, comprising:

• an engine;
• a fuel reservoir;
• a low pressure fuel pump to supply fuel from the reservoir to an engine driven variable output high pressure fuel pump operable at least at high and low demand levels;
• at least one fuel injector to supply fuel at high pressure to the engine;
• a fuel accumulator to store fuel at high pressure;
• a valve means to control a flow of fuel between the high pressure fuel pump, the accumulator, and the engine;
• and
• an electronic controller to control an operation of the high pressure fuel pump, the valve means and the at least one fuel injector, wherein the electronic controller is operable during a vehicle over-run event in which substantially no fuel is supplied to the engine, to operate the high pressure fuel pump at the high demand level while controlling the valve means to supply fuel from the high pressure fuel pump to the fuel accumulator.

A motor vehicle with an engine, comprising:

• at least one electrical traction motor to assist with driving of the motor vehicle;
• and
• an electrical generator to recuperate energy from the motor vehicle while storing the energy for subsequent use by the at least one electrical traction motor, wherein
• when a speed of the motor vehicle is above a predefined minimum vehicle speed, a fuel supply system is used during a vehicle over-run event to recuperate energy from the motor vehicle by operating a high pressure fuel pump at a high demand level to store fuel in an accumulator while the electrical generator is simultaneously used to recuperate energy from the motor vehicle;
• and
• when the speed of the motor vehicle is below the predefined minimum vehicle speed, the high pressure fuel pump operates at a low demand level during the over-run event while the electrical generator is used to recuperate energy from the motor vehicle and store the recuperated energy as electrical energy,.