A Hybrid Car With Detachable Engine Proposed 218
thecarchik writes "The SCI hyMod five-door minicar concept is the brainchild of a Romanian team made up of an engineer, a designer, and an automotive journalist. It uses what its designers call a 'dedicated logistics center' for the transformation from electric to gas-powered, in which the back end of the car containing a battery pack is removed, and replaced with one containing a gasoline engine module that drives the rear wheels. In normal urban use, the battery pack powers an electric motor that drives the front wheels. The hyMod combines elements of range-extended electric cars like the Fisker Karma and the Volt, plus a tiny, compact range extender, and perhaps even the Better Place automated battery-pack swap station."
What is the matter with car companies (Score:4, Insightful)
I just want a vehicle that runs electric and if I'm running low on amps has a small generator to drive it and recharge the batteries.
Re:What is the matter with car companies (Score:5, Insightful)
I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.
I would have thought the applications for this were obvious. Someone with a short commute during the week sticks to electric. For the road trip to the mountains at the weekend he swaps in the petrol engine.
Not rocket science.
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Well this vehicle do that? No? Junk...
Re:What is the matter with car companies (Score:5, Insightful)
On an average, Americans drive about 25 miles each way. So for the vast majority of Americans this should work. And yeah, if the vehicle does not suit you, the only thing it can be is junk, right?
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Whoosh. (well, at least I hope the GP is joking).
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On an average, Americans drive about 25 miles each way.
There's a fly in that ointment. The larger western states, and especially California which is the largest car market in the United States, often feature commutes longer than 25 miles. In California commutes of 30+ miles one-way are routine for many people and even 60+ mile commutes are not uncommon. This is especially true in Southern California where people commute long distances to and from the Los Angeles area. It takes a while to get anywhere in California by car, it's not like back east where one can d
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Pikes Peak is in a National Park. No houses.
(I thought the GP was just doing the old "walked 10mi to school every day, in the snow, uphill both ways" joke. But it is actually possible.)
"this vehicle isn't designed for you"
"This vehicle" is stupid. But electrics in general would be ideal for GP's situation. Individual electric motors on each wheel driven by a central, high-efficiency diesel genny. High-torque, high-efficiency 4wd pick-up.
I believe it would have been the best first hybrid-electric vehicle cla
Re:What is the matter with car companies (Score:5, Funny)
I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.
Hmmmm... If you need it that badly there is an easier way than lurking on Slashdot waiting for them to strike:
1) Turn on your TV.
2) Switch to Fox News.
3) Keep watching until you have gotten your fix of "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" chatter.
4) Turn off your TV.
Repeat as often as your addiction requires.
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If you want real news, you need to go out an find it for yourself. If the internets taught us anything it's that what the media has been feeding us for the past couple of hundred years was carefully orchestrated to sell us more news... not provide the news we needed.
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I have another can of False Equivalency for you, if you need to charge up.
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I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.
I would have thought the applications for this were obvious. Someone with a short commute during the week sticks to electric. For the road trip to the mountains at the weekend he swaps in the petrol engine.
Not rocket science.
Its hard to get owners to check basic maintenance requirements such as fluid levels, tyre pressures, and warning lights on instrument clusters.
To get an owner to swap an engine out is a HUGE leap from that.
Even if the process was made as simple, and painless as possible, there are a lot of car owners that wont even take a car for routine maintenance until the car fails, and requires costly repairs.
Taking a car to a garage for even minor work can be painful exercise in terms of taking time of work, having no
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Then you are at work and a loved in a few towns over is taken to hospital in serious condition. You now have to drive home or to the swap station, swap modules and drive to the hospital.
Another more likely scenario is that you get to work and find that your daughter forgot to plug the car in last night after she used it and you didn't notice it battery level when you left home. Why was it plugged in when you went to work? Because your daughter remembered in the morning and plugged the car in trying to avoid
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And what if I'm over in the next city, and a loved one on another continent has a heart attack? I'd really be kicking myself for not buying that Learjet.
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If swapping in the petrol engine takes a whole day, it aint gonna be useful to anyone.
It really does depend on the process to switch engines, and how convenient/time consuming it is, not to mention how much it costs.
If its cheaper to just own 2 cars, guess which option people would rather?
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With two competent helpers I can swap a Bug motor (not a Jeta motor as found in the new POS that shall not be named) in and out of a Baja bug in under 30 minutes.
Which is not even close to a record (under 14 minutes last time I cared).
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Well, the application is obvious. The question is, would it sell?
Concepts like this make sense, but it's really outside the way people think. I have my electric car which serves it's purpose for 99% of my driving. But, God Forbid, what happens if my mother who lives 300 miles away suddenly is in the hospital and I have to rush to her bedside!? I have to first go to the engine-swap place and sit and wait while they swap my car's engine and she could die while I'm waiting and I'd never get to tell her how
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No, not rocket science, but it increases the complexity (and therefore the price and maintenance cost) of something that already costs more than the market is willing to pay.
I'm old enough to remember when they tried making cars that could be regular cars during the week and change into a pickup when the owner needed to haul stuff. That's a much simpler transition, and I'm sure it met someone's needs. But, man, they didn't sell at all.
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That is why I drive such a small car. I'm compensating for something.
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I did like that joke, but maybe I should have typed more slowly so you could understand. I do drive a small car btw.
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And my ENGINE was missing again.
This happens all the time.
It's detachable.
This comes in handy a lot of the time.
I can leave it home, when I think it's gonna get me in trouble,
or I can rent it out, when I don't need it.
But now and then I go to a party, get drunk,
and the next morning I can't for the life of me
remember what I did with it.
First I looked around my apartment, and I couldn't find it.
So I called up the place where the party was,
they hadn't seen
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And carry all that extra weight around? (generator + fuel)
I'd rather just carry around a power cord.
Power Cord (Score:2)
Which is really going to help you 20 miles out of town when you are nowhere neal a power outlet.
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I've never found myself with an empty gas tank. What's it like?
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True but you can call for a can of gas. A 20 mile extension cord is much harder to come by.
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9.3 gallons of gas at 7.48lb per gallon is about 69.54 lb.
And an inline 4 engine with 85.3 cu. displacement probably does not weigh more than 200 lb.
I think Chevy claims all related systems for the combustion engine weigh 700 lb.
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Well, anything that can reasonably power a > 3000lb car up a freeway hill will be much more than 200lbs. Why not put a weed eater engine in, then your numbers will look way more impressive.
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The 2011 Chevrolet Volt does NOT have a direct mechanical connection between the engine and wheels. http://gm-volt.com/2010/06/30/combustion-engine-does-not-and-will-not-turn-the-volts-driveshaft-ever-got-it/ [gm-volt.com]
Now off to your bridge.
BTW my brother and I carried the motor and transmission (still bolted together) from my 95 neon about 50 ft. My weight 135lb, my brother 155lb. My neon motor is way bigger than the volt motor so I must be like Superman or something.
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As the electric motor is connected directly to a conventional drive train any direct connection to it, is a direct connection to the drive train. GPs statement is accurate.
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This engages at highway speeds because when you go that fast, the electric motor has much less torque.
[Pedantic point]
The ICE in the Volt only clutches in when the car is in charge sustain mode. On a full battery it will hit the speed limiter without powering up the ICE.
[/ Pedantic point]
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Not a 'direct connection', but the gas engine does, under certain circumstances, help propel the car.
At least that's what the Volt chief engineer says. [plugincars.com]
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O.K., so I've run the "convert my Miata to electric power" thought-game a few too many times, and what I almost invariably come up with is:
Stage 1, nice powerful electric motor with enough electrical energy storage to run maybe 20 minutes at full output, or just enough to get to work and back with a comfortable reserve. Plug-in recharge for the daily commute.
Stage 2, for longer trips, fuel powered generator (anything from a nasty cheap generator from Northern Tool, to a small turbine APU [turbinefun.com]) mounted on a trai
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Never going to happen. Watch Who Killed The Electric Car. Cars with only one moving part lack the service requirements and will never be sold by the existing car companies.
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One moving part? I like a stiffer suspension then most but I _will_ take mine with the optional suspension please. I think disc brakes are a good idea as well. Regenerative brakes are fine, but I still think conventional brakes are not optional.
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Cars with only one moving part lack the service requirements and will never be sold by the existing car companies.
Then they'll get sold by the Teslas of the world instead... or any of the 10,000 Chinese companies now getting into low-end electric vehicles.
The existing car companies can sell them too if they want; but if they don't, someone else will.
"small generator" is a hard hard problem (Score:2)
Everyone blathering about generators, go Google some. The backyard generators inflating Bouncy Castles at kids' parties that you're probably thinking of put out 3.5 kW or so. A 20 kW generator is a huge beast.
And 20 kW is only 26 horsepower! Sure, a car on flat ground doesn't require a lot of power, but a fully-laden car going up a mountain pass (and now towing/carrying a generator!) requires a lot more than that. Car companies are justifiably afraid of the negative publicity from some car reviewer taking
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from the chevy web site:
Volt is unique among electric vehicles because you have two sources of energy. You have an electric source–a battery–that allows you to drive gas–free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. And there's also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go up to a total of 375 miles on a full tank of gas
It's 20+ miles each way to work, and I can go 360 miles on a tank in my 7 year old hyundai.
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from the chevy web site: Volt is unique among electric vehicles because you have two sources of energy. You have an electric source–a battery–that allows you to drive gas–free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. And there's also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go up to a total of 375 miles on a full tank of gas
It's 20+ miles each way to work, and I can go 360 miles on a tank in my 7 year old hyundai.
35 miles on battery, with gasoline to get you the rest of the way with a Volt, vs 50 miles on battery in Nissan Leaf before you're stranded. [jalopnik.com]
With your 40 mile round-trip to work, you'd use 5 miles worth of gas in a Volt daily, and with a 375 mile gas tank that means you'd fill up every 75 days, or about 5 times a year.
Think I'd just fill up 5 times a year myself.
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It's 20+ miles each way to work
So...you can do 35 miles of your commute on electricity for a few cents plus the last five miles using gas.
Your Hyundai probably uses a gallon of gas to do the same thing. You could be paying $3.50 less per day.
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Series hybrids pay for that in long-range performance, since you go engine -> generator -> motor continuously. The whole point of the Prius and other parallel designs is to eliminate that engine -> generator loss when you can.
The basic problem with what you (and indeed others) want is that it's not really possible to make appreciable weight-savings on the type of engine you'd need to make the series system practical, and you need more batteries to make the efficiency over the short-haul worth it.
Wh
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Series hybrid are much more efficient than parallel hybrid since you can have a relatively small motor that continuously runs at peak efficiency: http://serieshybrid.com/FreedomFormula/images/Drivetrain_Comparison.pdf [serieshybrid.com]
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I do not understand why they haven't made a hybrid with a small (1 litre) efficient diesel engine that *only* kicks in to charge the batteries when they hit half charge.
Why a diesel? If you decouple the power source (as opposed to power storage) from the wheels, you don't need torque/rpm flexibility and can switch to an efficient constant RPM engine.
If you like the idea, you could try the Jaguar C-X75, though it only has 778hp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_C-X75 [wikipedia.org]
Otherwise, they're looking at developing similar systems for more serious cars: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/02/jaguar-developing-jet-powered-hybrid/ [wired.com]
Re:What is the matter with car companies (Score:4, Insightful)
Why a diesel? If you decouple the power source (as opposed to power storage) from the wheels, you don't need torque/rpm flexibility and can switch to an efficient constant RPM engine.
...Like a diesel generator? 50% thermal efficiency instead of petrol/gasoline's 30%. And longer engine lifespan as a bonus.
Lots of hybrid watchers have been asking for diesel-electric plug-in hybrids since the Prius became chic.
(Apparently part of the problem is the US doesn't have proper national standards for diesel quality.)
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...Like a diesel generator? 50% thermal efficiency instead of petrol/gasoline's 30%. And longer engine lifespan as a bonus.
The world's most efficient engine is 50% efficient as a package. It's a diesel... the size of a house, in a container ship.
(Apparently part of the problem is the US doesn't have proper national standards for diesel quality.)
Nah, we have low-sulfur diesel nationwide now. The problem is, we have stricter diesel emissions standards than the rest of the world, stricter in some ways than our gasoline emissions standards, which ALSO used to be the best in the world, driven by California. Unfortunately, the last time we tried to push them forward the federal government threatened to sue us. States' rights, my as
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Besides the turbines you linked to (which I'm not convinced scale down efficiently) there's the Stirling Cycle [wikipedia.org] engine. It is more efficient than an Otto cycle engine and has fewer moving parts but like any external combustion engine, it cannot produce power until it is warmed up, and it also can't quickly change power levels.
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I think it comes down to power to weight ratio... ...I do not understand why they haven't made a hybrid with a small (1 litre) efficient diesel engine that *only* kicks in to charge the batteries when they hit half charge.
Jaguar currently has a rather interesting hybrid concept car with a generator hooked to a turbine. Kind of interesting as a proof of concept. See here. [popularmechanics.com] One problem is that the turbine engine is a lot less efficient than the diesel engine, but you kind of make up for it in weight savings. Turbines weigh very little compared to a diesel. Obviously, this is not a daily driver, but hopefully they learn some stuff from just building it and it pays off.
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The choice of engine(s) in that design seems questionable to me. You're only talking 180 hp of fossil fueled engine. Even if the turbines were literally zero weight, you'd only be saving around the 200-300 kg range compared to a diesel, which as everyone has remarked and the designer admits, would have twice the fuel efficiency. So you have to have a fuel tank of twice the size, and twice the weight of fuel, for the same range extension. That reduces the weight saving. I'm going to guess the car weighs arou
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The Volt only drives the wheels from the ICE when its traveling 70+ mph in charge sustain mode i.e. when your already running the the ICE.
The ICE only has a single fixed ratio to the wheels, so your only adding a couple a gears and an electronically controlled clutch.
It adds less complexity than a single speed AWD transfer case and increases the vehicles overall efficiency.
And no, you can not have the ECU reduce power at all. Ever.
It is a modern automotive sin to in any way inconvenience The Driver, or expe
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except the volt has both "motors" hooked to the wheels and is in no ways a pure series hybrid
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Volt is a petrol car with an auxilliary electric motor.
No, that's Honda's IMA hybrid set up
I'd prefer it the other way around - an electric car with a tiny (~30hp), compact and light petrol engine. The engine wouldn't even have to be efficient, it doesn't matter because I'd use it twice a year only to extend the range from 100 miles to ~300 miles. The point is to *slow down* discharging the battery, and not to drive on petrol only. And since the energy produced by the engine would go straight to the electric motor (and not to the battery and back) that alone would save some power.
You really think a 30hp ICE will triple your range? I get where your coming from, but you have to factor in a few things. The 34hp engine in my KLR650 weights about 130lbs. A small four cylinder car engine weighs about 200-250lbs and makes 100-140hp.
If your going to add an ICE gen set to your EV you may as well make it big enough to do the work.
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Ok, when I read your reply I see: I want something as equally complex as the Volt, but less capable.
Just look at A Better Place (Score:2)
Replacing the batteries is far simpler than removing an entire engine. Since A Better Place has gotten very little traction for their electric car with replaceable batteries concept, I don't see how this would go anywhere either.
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A Better Place has gotten very little traction for their electric car with replaceable batteries concept...
Better Place is starting to look like a scam. They've been at this for five years now, have raised $700 million, and haven't deployed anything other than demos. Shai Agassi talks a good game, (I've heard him speak) but doesn't deliver. Better Place has been making Real Soon Now announcements since 2008, but nothing happens other than demos with heavy PR.
Recharging is still a big problem. Tesla put in enough charging stations from SF to LA to allow making that trip. But it takes an hour of charging per 50
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So eve if the top speed is 80mph the average speed is 40. Yeah, I would really want to drive from SF to LA at 40mph.
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more Better Place reality distortion (Score:2)
Better Place certainly hasn't "deployed dozens of switch stations" in Israel.
They built one battery switch station in Israel in 2011, there is zero evidence they've spent the millions to build any more. They've proudly videotaped installation of a few electrical outlets on posts as "charge spots". Those posts point out one of the problems with the BP model: since they own the pack and sell you electric miles, you are *required* to recharge with them, at much greater expense than plugging into an outlet your
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The lack of take up probably has several reasons;
1. Different battery specifications for different vehicles.
2. The need to conform the battery to the dimensions of the vehicle.
3. The additional hardware required to make a large heavy battery swappable.
4. The reluctance of some people to give up their batter for an unknown battery.
We can not even get standard cell phone batteries let alone standard electric car batteries.
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There are a couple of issues with your solution;
Battery capacity; For example the Mitsubishi i-MiEV have a 16kWhr battery. 32% of that would be 5.1kWhr. How can you pack that much power in a battery the size of a 12V?
Charge time; Batteries are not fuel tanks you can't just dump energy into a battery instantaneously. The faster you try charging a battery the hotter the battery gets and the shorter the battery life. Dumping 5.1kWhw of energy into a batter pack takes a lot longer than 8 minutes..
standardized extender battery problem (Score:2)
A 12V battery weight about 40 pounds. The Chevy Volt battery pack weighs 10x that, and holds 16 kWh to go roughly 30 miles all-electric. So your beefy swappable second battery will only send the car 4 miles down the road! So you need to put a bunch in to get reasonable distance. In fact the battery packs in EVs are built out of such sheets or slices wired together. But now you're talking a lot of unused space for the additional batteries, and space is already at a premium in an EV with a big battery pack.
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But why has it gotten so little traction? It is a brilliant idea, but Detroit suffers, badly I might add, from NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome. There are tons of awesome motor technologies, batteries, engines, & etc but status quo trumps all forms of though. Just look at what GM did to the Impreza and the Legacy, because they didn't invent them they redesigned them to be the same shit they were peddling elsewhere.
Too much hassle. (Score:4, Interesting)
Swapping would still be less convenient than carrying a generator, and without the generator range would be severely limited.
This is an overly complex solution to a simple problem. Until batteries improve, drive a PHEV.
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What I really think makes the most sense is owning a car for normal uses (an electric minivan for us) and renting something else for trips. But for some reason, renting a large vehicle is crazy expensive. For example, renting a E350 van from Avis is almost 3 times (2.8 to be precise) as expensive as an Im
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What? The Ford e350 has 80% of the US market for full-sized vans and a GVWR of 14,500 lbs (over triple the vehicle's own weight). They build school buses, ambulances, and motorhomes on that platform.
Anyways the same is true of any large vehicle, e.g. Suburban. I agree it must be a vicious cycle between high price and low d
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But for some reason, renting a large vehicle is crazy expensive.
It's worse than just expensive - it is nearly impossible when everyone gets the same idea. I lived in NYC and had a Zip Car membership. Zip Car was great for running to the store or for visiting a friend for dinner in NJ. But it was simply impossible to get a Zip Car on the weekends in the summer or during holidays... everyone had the same idea! Even trying to rent a regular Avis/Hertz/whatever car got to be crazy expensive during those times. That's because over 90% of the population depends on mass transi
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great idea. Instead of using Hydrogen as a fuel, we could cram a bunch into the engine while not in use, so it doesnt weight quite so much.
Way too complex (Score:5, Insightful)
That's too complex mechanically. And you have to decide, before you go out, how far you're going.
The Chevy Volt seems to be the right idea in hybrids. It's mostly electric, and solves the "range anxiety" problem. It just costs too much.
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I like the Jag concept car myself. Hybrid, but powered by two helicopter turbines. Tire ripping torque. Again it costs too much.
I've pretty much always believed that most cars could be improved by stabbing a particular engine into them. I propose redesigning the engine pod for this POS to take a screaming small block chevy (w. zoomie exhaust, because we're smogging it in pure electric mode anyhow). That would be cool.
Stupid idea. (Score:2)
When you replace the main batter pack the motive power comes from the gasoline engine in stead of a "ange-extended electric car (like the Chevrolet Volt) that carries around the engine when it's not needed you get a gasoline powered car that carries around electric motors and batteries that it does not need (there is a 5kW battery that is not removed when the module is swapped).
There are a few other issues with the concept.
1. Who has the space for the device that swaps the big battery fro the gasoline moto
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Two things that could make it simpler (Score:3)
There are two things that could be done to make this simpler, I think.
A. Have the range extender engines be rentals (with deposit), and have them installed for a nominal fee at the rental place. If you don't take trips frequently, this could be a tenable model.
B. Have it be a small trailer, with a very simple hookup that doesn't require complex installation.
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I've always liked "B". Double points for being able to store it on end, outside the garage when not in use. Make sure to balance the trailer well, so it is an easy hookup/move.
the genset trailer isn't happening (Score:2)
A simple hookup for 40 amps at 500V. Good luck with the safety regulations. And convincing electric cars to add the port for this, and to reprogram their cars to support charging while under motion.
The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genset_trailer [wikipedia.org] has been talked about for decades, but I just don't see it happening except amongst hobbyists. Even if they were available, most people will just rent a car/pick-up/minivan when their small EV doesn't meet a trip's requirements.
I like this (Score:2)
Aftermarket (Score:2)
454 c.i. V8 engine module available soon.
Wrong Approach (Score:2)
Basically, most cars are driven local 95-99% of the time. But for the odd time that you are taking a vacation, you could either attach a trailer OR a pack on the back. The pack would simply plug into the frame and have a max weight of say 150 LB. From that point, the pack/trailer contains a motor/generator, a wave disc generator, a fuel cell, more batteries, or even ultra-capacitors. With this approach, it makes it possible to rent small traile
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How about just having an extra compartment in the floor of the trunk, vented to the outside and sealed from the inside, into which you can drop a small portable generator with an electric starter?
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The other approach is pulling a trailer, but some ppl will be upset about the idea.
With both of these approachs, the car is designed to have as much cargo space as possible. The only issue is that 100
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The disadvantages of your approach are that A. it would significantly reduce the fuel economy (or electrical economy or whatever) of the vehicle because of all the extra wind resistance, and B. anything hanging below the rear bumper is likely to get scraped off or leave you stuck when you pull into any parking lot with a steep driveway.
If you do it with a chamber in the floor of the trunk, it avoids both of those problems, and you can still hook up an external power trailer if you really wanted to do so (pr
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the real problem with the all electric car (Score:2)
There is a problem with the all electric car, but it isn't really a technical problem, it is a poorly artificial legal problem created by our governments for the benefit of the insurance companies. The problem is that eventually everyone sees the need for a car with more range than the all electric car. So even if you want to save the earth and have clean air to breath, you don't buy an all electric car unless you are part of a multi-car household. I personally would buy one if I could, but the rare extende
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I think there is a fairly straightforward solution to your dilemma -- buy an electric car, and then for your occasional long-distance trip, rent a car.
Car rentals isn't too expensive (at least not for anyone who can afford to buy an electric car), and your own car's auto insurance will typically cover you while driving the rental car also.
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And the cost of insuring two cars is simply prohibitive.
I'm going to make a stab in the dark and assume you are a: single male, under 25 years of age, and live in a large metropolitan area.
Dude,
I've been there and I'm here to tell you, it gets better.
I know it seems unfair that you get lumped in with all the other assholes in your age bracket.
I use to pay $120 a month for liability coverage on a 1984 Plymouth Reliant.
I know the feeling of watching that check you wrote to the insurance co annihilate you bank account.
But someday you'll be 30 and the insurance comp
Just buy two cars (Score:2)
if only it were that simple (Score:2)
The right concept (Score:2)
Not a bad attempt, but I think what I'd really like to see is this sort of concept implemented to its full, logical extent, so you could start out by buying a small, low powered car, then change it bit by bit and end up with something with a big engine etc.
IOW, something where every part fits on a set of standard frames, so you could change your car according to your needs and your wallet, and could combine any parts of any make. That's what I want :-)
This is all kinds of wrong (Score:2)
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A F150 is better then no truck at all. I'd have to put a real front axle (and lockers) under it. Different compromises for different driving mixes.
I don't regret switching to my V8 roadster for daily driving. Opens the truck up, for off road use (still not a trailer queen). By deltas I'm greener then a hippy who switched from a GEO metro to a bicycle. (I'm down 1.4 liters in displacement.) I feel so green, I want to take a shower. Perhaps a lower final drive ratio will make me feel better. Certainly a ca
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Your history and geography are a bit scrambled.
Neither South Korea nor Taiwan were behind the Iron curtain.
Wasn't Romania the place where they killed a bunch of people testing the load capacity of a bridge by adding dump trucks until it failed? They've apparently never heard of non-destructive testing.
Truth is a know a good Romanian American engineer. He was destined to be a bricklayer under communism. It had all been decided.
If I'm looking for Engineering talent from behind the former iron curtain
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Leaf's motor is 80kW. Assume average highway use is 20kW (pulled from a dark place, I'm guessing It's low)
Just how big is a 20kW generator?
I can't find a Leaf's tow weight. I assume that's because it's zero.
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Put it into the trunk! if you need range you lose storage space. or have it hook on to the back of the car; like a bike rack. a small generator wouldn't be that bad to attach. so your car gets a "butt" for long range trips.
What bugs me is the electronics on all the electrics are not designed to handle power coming in while driving the car - I've asked each time. If it can handle it then there is a future market for range extension devices. A trailer being the idea I had over a decade ago.
Around town I do
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Carbon dioxide is not the enemy, the Green movement is a recipe for disaster
if you had just started your comment with this, it would have saved me some time, and I wouldn't have had to read your troll. good show.