> highway mileage with good all-round performance. The Hybrid will do
> better in the city though, partially due to regenerative braking. The
> Prius gets notably better city mileage than it does on the highway.
>
> -Adam
If you drove on the highway at city speeds, you'd get even better
mileage. Regen braking throws a lot of energy away at anything but low
braking power levels... especially on an electric vehicle with a battery
pack as minimal as the prius. The research hybrid electric car I worked
on for my M.S. had a similarly sized pack (20 miles). At the 1C rate
(probably about 2-3kW for the Prius), the batteries only retained about
50% of what you tried to stuff in them. On acceleration (at the 1C rate
again), you throw away another 50%. Regen is not the panacea everyone
thinks it is unless you can keep the rates really low... MUCH lower than
people are used to hitting the brakes. The other way to make it "lower"
is to put a bigger pack in it so the same current is "less" to the
battery. They spell these types of hybrids E-L-E-C-T-R-I-C.
Batteries suck.
-Cory
--
*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************
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