Hey guys...I had a thought about electric vehicles. Well I always have a thought about them. Anyways, people with electric cars seem to have a problem with kilometers per charge, since they run off pure batteries without any recharge on the go.

Then I watched some documentary about trains, how Diesel trains don't really use the diesel engine to move the train. It actually uses the diesel motor to power a generator, which produces the electricity for the electric motors.

Put the Diesel Train idea into a car...and you have a god damn fuel efficient car with minimal emissions that can probably allow you to travel WAY longer then a conventional combustion engine.

Think of the 180SX dude with the bunch of batteries in the boot and 2 x 9" electric motors pulling a 13s 1/4 mile. Take some of the batteries out and chuck in a power generator running on normal petrol, which produces 240V I think or something, to power the electric motors...would reduce the weight by a lot, and have a way longer running time (depending on how big the petrol tank is)

Only an idea...not like I will go out there and build one...

unless someone has spare electric motors lying around, someone else with a spare empty light shell (with wheels) and someone with a generator not in use...then I'd have something to work on haha

phong =P~

Energy in must be > energy out. you could use a generator AND batteries, use the batteries to supply peak (accelerating, hills etc) and recharge them on flats, it lets you run the motor at maximum output more often and leads to efficiency gains, but this will probably be largely offset by the mass of the batteries. you could also put this generator in a trailer and only take it along on long trips, use the batteries for short trips. I believe that trains use the motor - generator setup due to the massive torque requirements.

yeah, diesel trains need lots of torque...but would be cool in a car concept, imagine the launch.

I just thought of the idea as a strip car . I was thinking about the batteries, but more along the lines of emergency...such as generator running out of petrol. Wouldn't the generator(s) have enough energy output to power, for example, one electric motor continously?

Sorry, clueless when it comes to electric motors and generators.

phong =P~

There is always the but.... An EF has what, 156kW or so? So to get the same power, etc you would need a generator producing at least 156kW as the conversion from AC to DC and from 240V to 120V or what ever your electric motors are running at has losses in itself. You could probably go a bit lower to say 50% of the standard EF's power as an electric motor has all of its torque from 0+ rpm (ie just above 0). So you can run the electric motor at its 'sweet' spot all the time. You don't need a gear box, so there are less losses there. Still an 80kW generator is pretty darn big and thirsty.

Just a thought


cheers
Scott

Peugeot has just released a diesel/electric hybrid car. It uses just 3.4 litres of fuel per 100kms! It recharges it's batteries by using the kinetic energy usually lost during braking/deceleration. 0 to 100kms in 12.2 seconds. Although not the same concept as a train it is still pretty impressive.

most of the hybrid's use the petrol/diesel motor to drive a generator as far as I know? The thing is.... for 90% of the time you are using only 20% or less of the power potential. When cruising on the freeway at 100klm/hr you may get away with say 45-50kw or even less with a really aerodynamic vehicle. With batteries and a high powered electric motor that can produce say 200kw you would have wild acceleration but potential for low consumption at cruise speeds. Even better at 60klm/hr you could get away with 10kw or so. When idling along in traffic the electric car really come into it's own as it only uses power when the car is actually moving under load. eg. going down hill actually charges the batteries. Uphill uses battery power. Braking can also charge the batteries. A really clever electric vehicle has the potential to be super efficient. We just need to develop better batteries and put little windmills on our homes to charge the batteries.

hehe yeh. diesel submarines work the same way. quite an ingenuis idea really. it would be great if they could design an electric car that required no fossil fuels or anything and was able to recharge using solar panels and also while driving. imagine the reduction in pollution around the world

Have a look at the movie 'Who killed the electric car' talks all about how GM built a car and it was actually a quite good car on paper. and even better in life, 0-100 in 6 somethng secs and 60mile to the charge. more if they had have used the right batteries in the prototypes. interesting for a look.

Was a good documentary I must say...those damn oil companies...yet love to drive my car.

I guess Energy in must either equal or be less then energy output...that way it is way more efficient.

I don't think anyone can be bothered calculating energy loss around the car. Though an electric Go-Kart was meant to be really good

phong =P~