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Plug it in, Plug it in

Started by enguyen · 7 months ago

I have plug-in hybrids on the brain. Traditional hybrid cars couple electric and gas-powered motors to generate propulsion for a car. They can recapture momentum during braking as electricity to charge a small set of batteries. Plug-ins, unlike current hybrids, have bigger batteries and can be c ... Continue reading »

6 comments

  • benchun

    1 year ago

    How powerful does the gas generator have to be? Is it possible to make one that you can pull out of the car and use as a backup power system at home, or when traveling? (Say, while you are camping?) That would be sweet. If I'm going to have an internal combustion generator, I might as well be able to use it for all of my off-grid electricity needs!
    reply
  • enguyen

    1 year ago

    For what they call "series hybrids" where the generator only powers the batteries but doesn't provide mechanical energy to the drive train, the generators can be quite small. Essentially, they only need to be sized for average power, while the electric motor can be sized for peak power, playing to the strengths of each.

    I don't know how many horsepower that ends up being, but I imagine it's many times less than a normal car engine. Maybe even small enough to be portable. Then again, why pull it out of the car? Just plug stuff into your car, and then you can use the batteries, too, when you need things to be quiet :)
    reply
  • aaronb

    1 year ago

    Prius plug-in conversions: http://calcars.org/howtoget.html

    Of course, since you don't already own a car, this purchase would almost certainly result in a net gain in emissions.
    reply
  • enguyen

    1 year ago

    It's hard to beat the carbon footprint of my bike, I guess. Except perhaps by not being alive in the first place...
    reply
  • aaronb

    1 year ago

    reply
  • enguyen

    1 year ago

    Totally:


    "Think plans to sell the car but lease the battery as a way to overcome one of the biggest conundrums of electric cars. The battery is by far the most expensive component of the City, which will list for about $34,000 in Norway. Take the battery out of the equation, and Willums says he can sell the car for about $15,000 to $17,000 in the United States, with a "mobility fee" of $100 to $200 a month that might also include services like insurance and wireless Internet access."

    ...

    "Capricorn Investment Group, a Palo Alto private equity firm that has invested in both Think and Tesla, intends to launch a battery-leasing company to jump-start that market. "You have a natural way to create a total maintenance package," says Capricorn co-founder and partner Ion Yadigaroglu. "You're not going to pay the gas station; you'll pay us a monthly fee to use a battery that our company owns, which can be replaced in later years." "
    reply

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