On Sep 18, 2008, at 1:16 PM, Jones Beene wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Stephen A. Lawrence
> I have never seen this mentioned, but in principle the design
could be described as very "de-coupled", or "modular".
They are not calling it a 'hybrid' for a number of marketing
reasons, preferring to call it an "electric vehicle with a range
extender".
My major point is that they do NOT need a 40 mile range with
expensive lithium batteries!
The Volt motor specs are:
111 kW (150 hp) electric motor
1.4 L 4-cylinder gasoline engine for 53 kW genset.
So, taking your numbers, they use the same size engine as in a Prius.
The only difference is the way they couple the engine power to the
wheels. The question is, Is this method more efficient and lighter
than the way Toyota does the job? Otherwise, the behavior should be
similar. Meanwhile both Toyota and GM are adding capacity by adding
batteries. As a result we have a battery race, not a new concept.
Toyota will win because they will be at least as efficient, but
cheaper and more reliable.
Ed
All I am suggesting to do - to make this concept more affordable to
the average Joe, is to:
1) dump the lithium in favor of advanced SLA
2) go for a battery range of 20 miles instead of 40 miles (20 was
the range of the VH-1) which covers most day-to-day errands and
short commutes
3) keep the electric motor the same size
4) trim the 4-cylinder down in power and weight to about 35 kW and
make it a diesel, possibly a two cylinder diesel.
At that power, the car will have a hard time keeping up with traffic
when the batteries are exhausted. This would be the death of the idea.
I believe this would cut $10,000 off the cost of batteries - making
the vehicle affordable for a much larger segment of drivers.
Compared to the present Prius, the smaller diesel will get
significantly better mileage.
If the driver knows he is needing to go hundered of miles in a day,
he will have to plan ahead - but can set the genset to max power,
and override the normal default setting and keep the batteries
topped off as long as possible. Even so, he might need to stop for
an intermediate range plug-in for a few hours. That would be the
trade-off vis-a-vis a Prius.
This is too complicated for most people. Too many would fail to do
this and end up asking for help from their husbands. :-)
I am not sure who came up with this idea initially - but they were
claiming that it could get to 100 mpg, which of course becomes
meaningless without knowing how much grid power is used,
Jones
