foghorn
Thumbs up. I don\'t understand the approach to aerodynamics but hey, it;s a giant step in the right direction. I would seriously look at buying this, especially it the engine was turbo diesel.
windykites
Foghorn: I bet you would seriously think again about buying it when you found out the price! Let\'s face it, this baby ain\'t gonna be cheap! What intrigues me about hybrid vehicles, is their ability to get high mpg by using a small petrol engine to run a generator, to charge a battery, to drive electric motors, to turn the wheels. This chain must have energy losses. If you think about it, surely it would be more energy efficient to just use a small engine to drive the wheels? Can anyone tell me if my thinking is wrong?
Facebook User
a good brushless motor should be in the 80 to 90% range for efficiency, some even topping 90%. A combustion engine is in the 20% to 30% range,..however, under acceleration , the combustion engine can drop into the low single digits. The majority of the energy you use is going from zero to 40 and the electric power system is far more efficient there. Yes, you\'re generating far less energy to \"put in the tank\" (batteries) with the small combustion engine,.. but instead averaging 5 to 10% efficient use of it (averaging acceleration and cruising), you\'re up in the 80 to 90 range in efficiency. Say you have a gallon of gas and the combustion engine extracts 30% of the energy and stores it in a battery, then you use that energy in an 80 to 90 percent efficient manner,.. you end up using 24% to 28% of the energy out of the gallon of gas. if you were using the combustion engine alone, then you\'re going to use something at least twice as large, so for the sake of easy math say 2 gallons of gas. With the horrible efficiencies of the combustion engine You\'ll probably end up averaging at best 15% efficiency,.. so to do the same work as the electric with double the fuel. yes, there are losses as you mention, but the greater average efficiency of the electric system simply makes better use of the energy. if you were to add in regenerative braking, using the kinetic energy of your motion as supplemental energy to charge batteries, you skew the argument even further
John Weiss
windykites1, the power train in this thing is electrical wiring. That\'s a much more efficent transmission of power than a mechanical train of any kind that I know about.
Pete E
windykites1: The clue is in the 370Nm of torque. That is impossible to deliver using a small combustion engine of ANY description. Remember that the fuel consumption is a \'combined\' (plug-in electric range extender) fuel consumption average. Electric motors are much more efficient than internal combustion engines at turning the \'potential\' energy (from a battery) into the real energy needed to drive the wheels. I sometimes wonder (haven\'t attempted the maths) that using a small generator at home (running off petrol or diesel) to charge batteries for a car like this is still a better use of the fuel than using an internal combustion engine in the car.
JoeAverage
Just think what kind of mileage this car could get with normal sized wheels and tires. 24\" wheels puts alot of rubber out there at the edge of the rim. Physics and all that.
I don\'t need any swoopy bodywork. Give me a normal body/chassis already on the market like a Saturn/Opel Astra and put this drivetrain in it. Ought to be MUCH cheaper b/c the driveline is not in a unique to the GM lineup vehicle!!!
That savings can translate into alot of gas or electricity!
Why does GM need all the Star Trek/Star Wars styling to sell a plug-in hybrid???
robinyatesuk2003
looks like Vauxhall have come up with a serious challenge to all the doubters out there,so many of them think a vehicle has to have 4 wheels, seat 7, be of a certain configuration, be as things used to be
hydra
Will it be drivable in snowy conditions? If not then I wouldn\'t be able to use it 9 months out of the year.
Chris7527
Actually its pretty efficient because they make the engine run at its optimum rpm and torque all the time, this makes it basically more efficient overall.
Facebook User
electric motors are way more efficient, it's just the battery technology w\'re still waiting for. makes me wonder why we can't put electric cars on the public production line right now since an electric care with drive by wire technology is cheaper than a car with mechanical linkages.
It'd be good if we could build recharge stations like we build petrol stations today where you drive into the station and you have a group of electrical recharge "pumps" where you "refill" your batteries like you do your petrol tank. this would also have your typical garage with shop attached.