[ausev] Series hybrids

[Christopher Robison]

On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 17:26 -0600, John Penry at Texrocks wrote:
> Thanks for the information.  I have a 36 mile trip each way to work, and no 
> way to plug in while at work.
> I was thinking that creating a series hybrid similar to the GM Volt, would 
> be easier to do using a pickup, and I had thought that the engine 
> compartment could be used to place a motor from a motorcycle, snowmobile, or 
> small diesel.  After going by and taking a look at the Ford Rangers on 
> display this weekend, I'm beginning to wonder where all that electronic 
> stuff is going to go.
> 
> I have read the work on the AC Propulsion Long Ranger, and thought that it 
> could go under the hood, and the batteries - only needing a 40 mile range 
> there would be a savings in weight and space required for the batteries, and 
> that could be used for the generator.  Maybe I'll have to wait for some of 
> the electronics to get miniaturized.

The electronics are not really your problem. Based on lead-acid, a
typical conversion filled with batteries with no space for a generator,
usually gets about 35-40 miles.

Using lithium (at 10 times the price for the same energy capacity)
reduces required volume for the same energy by at least half, and weight
by a factor of 4 or more. This would allow room for the generator, but
probably not one large enough to allow arbitrary range (just guessing
here) if you're limited to options available off the shelf today.

The only way to do this in a small/light enough package is with a small
engine running at very high RPMs (as the Long Ranger did) and a
generator head capable of generating the appropriate voltage at that
speed. As I understand ACP used their (very expensive) AC150 motor for
that purpose. I have no idea what the Long Ranger sounded like, but I'm
going to bet that it screamed, and would not last long in normal use.
High power density in a generator is a pretty tough nut to crack. That
Ossa manages it with diesel in under 600 pounds is pretty impressive in
my opinion, but that's still over 15 cubic feet.



-- 
Christopher Robison
chris at ohmbre.org
http://ohmbre.org          <-- 1999 Isuzu Hombre + Z2K + Warp13!