I saw a company in Australia that had an electric motor that mounted in the engine compartment. It was connected to the existing gas motor by a drive belt like an alternator and a battery pack was installed in the trunk. It was'nt so much for fuel efficiency as for a power boost off the line. During deceleration it acted as a generator (instead of the brake operated regenerative braking) and charged the battery. During steady driving it either freewheeled or kicked in so the engine didn't work so hard. mostly though it kicked in off the line to accelerate. Seemed like it could be reconfigured for greater efficiency or the gas motor could be sized down but they didn't talk of that. I've searched recently and not found them. I thought the excciting thing was to retrofit existing cars if there could be an efficiency boost.
Yes and the best thing is the car runs on electric and the generation/charging system can be upgraded as new technologies become viable. Use a small gas or diesel generator today. Even if the mileage is about the same as a conventional fossil fuel or hybrid rig the option of plugging in and running on electric and being able to swap out the generator for a more efficient model later or even a different power source is the real innovation.
I not only want to see these made ASAP but would like to see retrofit kits for existing cars. I drive a Subaru Outback that could handle a good load of batteries and has enough life left in it to make the conversion worthwhile. Anybody hear of a reasonable conversion kit on the market?? (this is my first post- maybe I should start a new thread??
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I saw a company in Australia that had an electric motor that mounted in the engine compartment. It was connected to the existing gas motor by a drive belt like an alternator and a battery pack was installed in the trunk. It was'nt so much for fuel efficiency as for a power boost off the line. During deceleration it acted as a generator (instead of the brake operated regenerative braking) and charged the battery. During steady driving it either freewheeled or kicked in so the engine didn't work so hard. mostly though it kicked in off the line to accelerate. Seemed like it could be reconfigured for greater efficiency or the gas motor could be sized down but they didn't talk of that. I've searched recently and not found them. I thought the excciting thing was to retrofit existing cars if there could be an efficiency boost.
Yes and the best thing is the car runs on electric and the generation/charging system can be upgraded as new technologies become viable. Use a small gas or diesel generator today. Even if the mileage is about the same as a conventional fossil fuel or hybrid rig the option of plugging in and running on electric and being able to swap out the generator for a more efficient model later or even a different power source is the real innovation. I not only want to see these made ASAP but would like to see retrofit kits for existing cars. I drive a Subaru Outback that could handle a good load of batteries and has enough life left in it to make the conversion worthwhile. Anybody hear of a reasonable conversion kit on the market?? (this is my first post- maybe I should start a new thread??