Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

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Aabidano
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Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

Post by Aabidano »

Was reading about the Chevy Volt, the electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid seems label seems to be a matter of degree, and plug in capability. For a grocery getter, the Volt seems a much better approach. For commuting or very cold weather use something like the Prius would win out, especially in longer commutes.

I kind of balk at the initial thought of it, but realistically a 40 mile range with the ability to recharge\supplement itself would cover every drive I've made so far this year. That'll be a hard concept to market though. Telling an American they can't drive anyplace they want, whenever they want is a hard sale regardless of reality. ~25 miles can take me just about anyplace in Metro Tampa, 40 would take me to Orlando (100 to the East coast, ~200 to Jax, Miami, Tallahassee).

I'd still need to keep a towing capable vehicle around for fishing\camping, but something dinky\electric could easily cover anything else.

*Edit - "performance" is a non-issue for me, and realistically everyone else, 99.99% of the time. Unless of course you habitually drive like an ass.

Driving a VW with a 1.6l, ~52hp diesel (now ~80) for a while and having no issues in traffic gives you an appreciation for how much power is actually needed for "just driving".
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cadalano
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Re: Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

Post by cadalano »

on a full battery, the volt is 40 miles range until any gasoline is consumed. at that point the combustion engine kicks in which recharges the battery. actual max range is supposed to be over 600 miles. so people can still drive wherever they want. correct me if i'm wrong but it sounds like you're thinking the max range is 40 period


i would buy this car- the notion of virtually never having to go to a gas station is pretty slick to me.
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Aabidano
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Re: Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

Post by Aabidano »

The article I initially read on it made it appear that it wasn't completely capable on it's own after the initial "plug in" charge was used, and that it would take some time to recharge itself.
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Re: Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

Post by Spang »

Aabidano wrote:The article I initially read on it made it appear that it wasn't completely capable on it's own after the initial "plug in" charge was used, and that it would take some time to recharge itself.
cadalano is correct.
cadalano wrote:on a full battery, the volt is 40 miles range until any gasoline is consumed. at that point the combustion engine kicks in which recharges the battery. actual max range is supposed to be over 600 miles. so people can still drive wherever they want.
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Re: Electric car with an on board generator vs. a "real" hybrid

Post by Pherr the Dorf »

There are 2 kinda of hybrids, Parallel and series. Some vehicles like the Prius and Volt run both depending on the situation, the Honda's run only parallel for a savings of around a grand a unit. If you are doing routine long distance driving you are better off with a parallel system only because of the significant cost savings and minimal benefit from the series portion of the system, both financially and enviornmentally.

Sadly the main problem is, Hybrids are simply put not green. The production and eventual recycling of the batteries causes a larger footprint than the gas savings ever could. This is obviously something that will change over time but battery technology is pathetically slow in advancing. Hybrids are an expensive bandaid attempting to cover a deep wound, they look helpful, reality is not so much. For this same reason, electric cars are never going to be the answer either. Nevermind the impact it would have on the grid, we have rolling blackouts on hot days all around the country, can you imagine what would happen at 6 o'clock when everyone plugged their cars in? Unless we replace our entire electrical infrastructure, the plug in hybrids/electric cars are merely fluff.

Hydrogen is should be the future. Much like an electric car, where the power comes from would be the true measurement of how green they are (is the hydrogen coming from coal power, natural gas or solar or whatever), with all the benefits of an electric car (hello torque and 0-60's in the 4's and 5's) but only requiring a single fuel cell stack instead of a large bank of very heavy batteries that can be refueled just like your car at the local corner station. It would be far easier to convert pumps to hydrogen than it would be to convert our entire electrical grid and there is still the option of in home charging as well. Nevermind that the emissions are only water.

The next 10 years will determine the direction we go, hopefully we don't pick VHS over Betamax again just because the market forces want us to go that direction.
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