A Hybrid Car With Detachable Engine Proposed

thecarchik writes "The SCI hyMod five-door minicar concept is the brainchild of a Romanian team made up of an engineer, a designer, and an automotive journalist. It uses what its designers call a 'dedicated logistics center' for the transformation from electric to gas-powered, in which the back end of the car containing a battery pack is removed, and replaced with one containing a gasoline engine module that drives the rear wheels. In normal urban use, the battery pack powers an electric motor that drives the front wheels. The hyMod combines elements of range-extended electric cars like the Fisker Karma and the Volt, plus a tiny, compact range extender, and perhaps even the Better Place automated battery-pack swap station."

Comments

What is the matter with car companies

[bobstreo]

I just want a vehicle that runs electric and if I'm running low on amps has a small generator to drive it and recharge the batteries.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[fiannaFailMan]

I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.

I would have thought the applications for this were obvious. Someone with a short commute during the week sticks to electric. For the road trip to the mountains at the weekend he swaps in the petrol engine.

Not rocket science.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[Savage-Rabbit]

I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.

Hmmmm... If you need it that badly there is an easier way than lurking on Slashdot waiting for them to strike:

1) Turn on your TV.
2) Switch to Fox News.
3) Keep watching until you have gotten your fix of "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" chatter.
4) Turn off your TV.

Repeat as often as your addiction requires.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[Charliemopps]

Yes, because no other news networks cater to their particular audience at the expense of any real journalism.

If you want real news, you need to go out an find it for yourself. If the internets taught us anything it's that what the media has been feeding us for the past couple of hundred years was carefully orchestrated to sell us more news... not provide the news we needed.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[ThatsMyNick]

On an average, Americans drive about 25 miles each way. So for the vast majority of Americans this should work. And yeah, if the vehicle does not suit you, the only thing it can be is junk, right?

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[bobstreo]

from the chevy web site:
Volt is unique among electric vehicles because you have two sources of energy. You have an electric source–a battery–that allows you to drive gas–free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. And there's also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go up to a total of 375 miles on a full tank of gas

It's 20+ miles each way to work, and I can go 360 miles on a tank in my 7 year old hyundai.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[mijxyphoid]

I was just wondering how long it would take to hear from the "this isn't exactly what I want therefore I don't see why it would be of use to anyone" brigade.

I would have thought the applications for this were obvious. Someone with a short commute during the week sticks to electric. For the road trip to the mountains at the weekend he swaps in the petrol engine.

Not rocket science.

Its hard to get owners to check basic maintenance requirements such as fluid levels, tyre pressures, and warning lights on instrument clusters.

To get an owner to swap an engine out is a HUGE leap from that.
Even if the process was made as simple, and painless as possible, there are a lot of car owners that wont even take a car for routine maintenance until the car fails, and requires costly repairs.

Taking a car to a garage for even minor work can be painful exercise in terms of taking time of work, having no transport whilst the car is off the road, costs involved, and the anxiety that the mechanic could be a complete idiot, and screw something up, or damage the car.

Unfortunately, I cannot see this ever becoming mainstream, even though the idea is very very sound.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[Electricity Likes Me]

Series hybrids pay for that in long-range performance, since you go engine -> generator -> motor continuously. The whole point of the Prius and other parallel designs is to eliminate that engine -> generator loss when you can.

The basic problem with what you (and indeed others) want is that it's not really possible to make appreciable weight-savings on the type of engine you'd need to make the series system practical, and you need more batteries to make the efficiency over the short-haul worth it.

What we really need is a practical, portable solid-oxide fuel cell that can use regular petrol - since then you're looking at 80% direct electrical efficiency, and a greatly reduced number of moving parts (and avoiding the need for a generator at all).

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[Anonymous Coward]

I have another can of False Equivalency for you, if you need to charge up.

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[ozmanjusri]

I do not understand why they haven't made a hybrid with a small (1 litre) efficient diesel engine that *only* kicks in to charge the batteries when they hit half charge.

Why a diesel? If you decouple the power source (as opposed to power storage) from the wheels, you don't need torque/rpm flexibility and can switch to an efficient constant RPM engine.

If you like the idea, you could try the Jaguar C-X75, though it only has 778hp. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_C-X75

Otherwise, they're looking at developing similar systems for more serious cars: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/02/jaguar-developing-jet-powered-hybrid/

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[FatLittleMonkey]

Why a diesel? If you decouple the power source (as opposed to power storage) from the wheels, you don't need torque/rpm flexibility and can switch to an efficient constant RPM engine.

...Like a diesel generator? 50% thermal efficiency instead of petrol/gasoline's 30%. And longer engine lifespan as a bonus.

Lots of hybrid watchers have been asking for diesel-electric plug-in hybrids since the Prius became chic.

(Apparently part of the problem is the US doesn't have proper national standards for diesel quality.)

Re:What is the matter with car companies

[drinkypoo]

...Like a diesel generator? 50% thermal efficiency instead of petrol/gasoline's 30%. And longer engine lifespan as a bonus.

The world's most efficient engine is 50% efficient as a package. It's a diesel... the size of a house, in a container ship.

(Apparently part of the problem is the US doesn't have proper national standards for diesel quality.)

Nah, we have low-sulfur diesel nationwide now. The problem is, we have stricter diesel emissions standards than the rest of the world, stricter in some ways than our gasoline emissions standards, which ALSO used to be the best in the world, driven by California. Unfortunately, the last time we tried to push them forward the federal government threatened to sue us. States' rights, my asshole.

Too much hassle.

[couchslug]

Swapping would still be less convenient than carrying a generator, and without the generator range would be severely limited.

This is an overly complex solution to a simple problem. Until batteries improve, drive a PHEV.

Re:Too much hassle.

[MightyYar]

But for some reason, renting a large vehicle is crazy expensive.

It's worse than just expensive - it is nearly impossible when everyone gets the same idea. I lived in NYC and had a Zip Car membership. Zip Car was great for running to the store or for visiting a friend for dinner in NJ. But it was simply impossible to get a Zip Car on the weekends in the summer or during holidays... everyone had the same idea! Even trying to rent a regular Avis/Hertz/whatever car got to be crazy expensive during those times. That's because over 90% of the population depends on mass transit, and everyone needs to rent when they want to blow town.

Anyway, I keep looking into electric and hybrid cars, but they just don't make any sense for us - my commute is 20 miles/day and my wife's is 10. I typically drive the minivan because I do the kid pickups and dropoffs, and they don't make an electric version of those yet. Even if they did, the minivan is the car of choice on long trips, so electric would be a no-go. Hybrid may or may not pay off, depending on what the price of gas does.

It would be nice to stop paying Hugo Chavez for oil, though.

Way too complex

[Animats]

That's too complex mechanically. And you have to decide, before you go out, how far you're going.

The Chevy Volt seems to be the right idea in hybrids. It's mostly electric, and solves the "range anxiety" problem. It just costs too much.

Re:Just look at A Better Place

[jklovanc]

The lack of take up probably has several reasons;
1. Different battery specifications for different vehicles.
2. The need to conform the battery to the dimensions of the vehicle.
3. The additional hardware required to make a large heavy battery swappable.
4. The reluctance of some people to give up their batter for an unknown battery.

We can not even get standard cell phone batteries let alone standard electric car batteries.

Two things that could make it simpler

[FishTankX]

There are two things that could be done to make this simpler, I think.

A. Have the range extender engines be rentals (with deposit), and have them installed for a nominal fee at the rental place. If you don't take trips frequently, this could be a tenable model.
B. Have it be a small trailer, with a very simple hookup that doesn't require complex installation.

Re:Wow, Green is stupid.

[drinkypoo]

Carbon dioxide is not the enemy, the Green movement is a recipe for disaster

if you had just started your comment with this, it would have saved me some time, and I wouldn't have had to read your troll. good show.