








Source: Auto News

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RE: It is not electric
By axeman1957 on 5/7/2013 10:20:47 AM , Rating: 5
But I wish more auto makers did this.

Electric car with petrol range extensions. Because something needs to bridge the gap until re-charging can be done in as many places as refueling, and as quickly.

If you never use the fuel for your daily commute, but you want to go out of town on the weekends, you can. It is a backup system on an electric car.

RE: It is not electric
By Mint on 5/7/2013 12:36:35 PM , Rating: 1

What's better for pollution? Somebody buying a gas car because they can't live with a pure EV? Or getting an EV with a smaller battery pack but includes a tiny engine that I use 5% of the time?

This is the future. Hopefully we'll get natural gas microturbines instead at some point, but motorcycle engines are fine in the meantime, even if they aren't as efficient as an Atkinson cycle engine (which is why the Volt is also a good direction to go down).

If the Tesla 60kWh (or even smaller battery) put one of these tiny engines in the 'frunk', it would be more usable than the 85kWh version.

RE: It is not electric
By SublimeSimplicity on 5/7/2013 12:57:32 PM , Rating: 3
Rumors (based on patent filings) are that Tesla is a step ahead of this. They are planning to use a consumable metal-air battery from (probably Phinergy) for range extension.

So imagine a 40kWh car (150 mile range) that would be enough for day-to-day needs, combined with an Aluminum-Air battery that costs on par to fuel to use when you need more range. Plus the Aluminum-Air battery/fuel-cell only adds about 100lbs to car and simple integration (no complex gearing, pumps, or wear parts).

RE: It is not electric
By Mint on 5/7/2013 6:40:21 PM , Rating: 2
That's a very interesting idea. I had no idea that using aluminum a non-rechargeable battery could be cost competitive with gasoline. I always wrote off air batteries because of cycling issues.

So I guess once or twice a year you'd go somewhere to swap out the range extender cell for a new one, maybe 1000 miles for $100. Even twice that is reasonable.

That really would be a game changer. I could still see some people prefer a tiny engine with gas tank, though, as even those couple trips per year would be annoying without widespread infrastructure.

