SDSU Students Create Sporty Hybrid Vehicle

Nevyan writes "SDSU Engineering students working in conjunction with real life designers create an electric hybrid vehicle that actually...well.. looks cool for all the right reasons. Participant in the Tour de Sol. I happened to see this vehicle on campus at SDSU and I want to buy one so badly." Njaneer.com has more information and photos - here's one to give you an idea of the size.

body ripped off thunderranch

[Rev. DeFiLEZ]

laff, thats the "riot" by thunder ranch [thunderranch.com].
not exactly but i assume its mods are for the hybrid part or it could be the riot 2 (thunder ranch is slow on putting things on their page)

-rev

Re:impact on the enviornment?

[Dreamweaver]

Modern hybrid cars don't get plugged into electrical outlets. They use some sort of conservation strategy to burn gasoline in order to charge up a battery while you're driving, that way you run part of the time purely on electric power. Thus, you still fill it up with gas; just less often than normal. That's why you'll see hybrid cars advertising some big number of miles-per-gallon.

So yeah, hybrids aren't as clean as a purely electrical or hydrogen fuel-cell car would be, but they have significantly less emissions-per-mile than a regular car simply because they burn less fuel over time.

(Note, I may be totally off about the battery charging thing. I don't know or claim to know how they work exactly, but I know that's the basic premise. Anyone with more details, please post. I'd like to know more but have never found myself motivated to go look :))

A common misconception.

[raygundan]

That's either one of the most common misconceptions about hybrid cars, or a magnificent troll. I'll answer it either way, just so somebody else isn't confused...

Current hybrids like the Prius, Insight, and Civic don't need external electric charging. Their batteries are very small, and store energy generated by braking or excess power from the gas engine if necessary. The economy comes from a couple of things:

1. You get back energy when you brake.
2. Your gas+electric motors combined are approximately the same power output as a traditional gas motor, but you can turn off part of a hybrid when you don't need it. So you've got the power you need for acceleration, but once you're cruising, the extra motor can cut out leaving you using less energy.
3. Your gas engine can shut off at stoplights, since your electric motor acts as the world's most kickass starter motor. (For example, the Prius' electric motor brings the gas engine to speed in less than one revolution)
4. Your electric motor doesn't waste power "idling".

At no point are you ever charging your battery with power generated from a power plant. They really are just more efficient than gas-only cars at the moment.

Re:I'd buy it

[raygundan]

You don't have to charge the battery in a hybrid from an external source. Ever. Just put gas in. In fact, aggressive driving with lots of hard braking would charge it faster in current hybrids.

Honda has a sweet prototype called the DualNote [popsci.com] that makes 400hp and gets 43mpg. I would certainly be in for that!! I'd be even happier at 200hp/86mpg, though. Something small and fun like a WRX that gets 86mpg would rule.

Buy this technology today - it's VW!

[jonbrewer]

All you looking at the performance and gas milage of this car, have a look at what powers it. Sure there's an electric motor which gives you the fast 0-60, but if you look at the specifications [njaneer.com] page, you'll notice that all that electricity is powered by a Volkswagen TDI diesel engine.

This is the 1.2 liter Lupo [volkswagen.de] engine. Without the electric motor it gets 78 miles to the gallon anyway! Now while cars with this engine aren't sold in the US, one can purchase a Golf or Jetta with a slightly larger 1.9 liter TDI which makes 50 MPG, and generates between 90-115 HP. (with a torque peak of 155 lb. ft. @ 1900 rpm) 0-60 is a pathetic 10s, but 0-40 is a phenomenal ~4 seconds, which I find easily leaves a Subaru WRX or a BMW M3 in the dust.

(Yeah, that's me in my diesel Golf [rock-chalk.com] playing "the fast and the furious [thefastandthefurious.com]" on the streets of Boston twice a day.) :-)

pictures

[supahdren]

courtesy of your friendly neighborhood karmawhore, here are the pics:

click here [njaneer.com]

Re:Buy this technology today - it's VW!

[istewart]

The VW TDI is indeed a good engine. My family has 2 New Beetles here, both powered by TDIs. (BTW, the acronym stands for Turbocharged Direct Injection.) People are often surprised when I mention that the car has a turbo-diesel engine in it, with one person going so far as to say there was something wrong with my Bug because it was idling too loud. It's really all worth it, since I can make it from here to LA and back (~600 miles) without having to stop for fuel. The torque curve is also beneficial as well, for putting small dents in the self-esteem of a number of street racers. Interestingly enough, I saw a VW ad the other day marketing the Golf TDI as a performance vehicle, showing one about to get stopped by a highway patrol officer. Maybe they intend to take advantage of the engine's performance potential?

In Europe, VW has a Lupo prototype made from lightweight materials that can do 130 MPG without a hybrid powerplant. I can't find a link offhand, but I believe I read that in Automobile magazine. With advances like these, I think these engines are a major force in the future of internal-combustion technology. (Interestingly enough, the state of California was offering tax breaks for people who bought TDIs, since they were considered a low-emissions vehicle. This was until VW stopped shipping TDIs into CA and NY state in 1999 due to more stringent environmental restrictions. Local dealerships have only begun to receive TDIs again in the past year or so...)

Re:Some questions

[allanj]

Firstly, why use a dual engine design? couldn't the gas engine simply be used to power a generator? it being more effiecent to tune a engine to run at a constant RPM. Just have a large electric motor and a small gas motor.

First of all, large electric motor => large batteries => expensive, heavy and takes a lot of space => not suitable for a normal-looking (or in this case, great looking) car. Because if it didn't have large batteries, the range would be very limited - the small gas engine would not be sufficient to keep the battery charged. This depends on HOW small we're talking here, but if it needs to be large enough to basically deliver all the power for the electric motor, it would be wiser, energy-wise, to forego the generator and have the gas engine run the wheels directly, since even the best generators have noticeable losses of energy.

Second, the idea is to have the two engines do what they each do best. The electric motor keeps it humming along the highways at cruise speed (where little power is needed), and the fuel one delivers the power to accelerate (where more power is needed). So you get the best from both worlds.

Finally, Why use petrol and not natural gas or some other alternative fuel, If you make the tank the standard size then you should be able to get around the "not having enough gas stations problem" which holds these types of fuel back? Since you aren't constantly filling the thing up.

The idea seems to be that using ordinary fuel will speed acceptance. No Joe Sixpack will want a natural gas engine if he THINKS there's not going to be a gas station within range wherever he goes. The hybrid car presented in the article is really just another fuel burner with a really impressive miles/gallon figure, so there is nothing more to worry about than what to do with the gas money saved :-)

Personally, I can't wait for this type of car to reach my country, where fuel is $1/liter. If only they'll put this style of engine in a more usable size car (say, one that can hold my family of soon-to-be 5 persons) and still reap the benefits of a hybrid engine. No wonder my country is the place in the world where 33 km/l VW Lupos are most popular :-)

hybrids rule

[carnut]

There are just so many things I want to say about so many of the comments here that I don't know where to start.

First off, I was at the 2002 Tour de Sol where this car was supposed to be the best car ever. All you have to do is check out the scores. The car from SDSU finished the race with -18 points. Yes, that is less than zero. Just showing up and filling out paper work earns some points. Where was all this 260hp performance? If you want to see some real student built hybrid vehicles check out Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute at http://vri.etec.wwu.edu. We have several hybrids. Some are conversions but we tend to specialize in the ground up design of real vehicles.

Second, plugging an electric car into the wall is more efficient and cleaner than burning gasoline to power a generator. This is because it is easier to clean up the emissions from a large plant, it's all in one place, than it is to clean up the tailpipe of many cars that move all over the place.

Third, diesel engines are more efficient than most other internal combustion engines. Those of you that think they are dirty and pollute the air more than gasoline engines are also wrong. You probably think of those city buses and heavy equipment belching black smoke into the air when you think of diesel power. That's only because those engines are not very well tuned. A well tuned diesel engine is just as clean as a well tuned gas engine.

Finally, hybrids rule. You get the best of both worlds. Electric drive that is most efficient at low speeds and internal combustion power that is most efficient at cruising speeds. I have spent a couple years of my college carrer researching and building a hybrid vehicle so it pains me to see people so uninformed about what is happening to the cars of the future. Pure electric vehicles are not generally accepted by consumers since you have to plug them in every night or you don't get to work the next day. Fuel cells require gaseous hydrogen. When is the last time you went to the corner refuelling station and found hydrogen? Hybrid vehicles use technology for a sustainable future.