GM Car of the Future - 100 MPG (2005)

[BigWarpGuy]

Myers Motors has the NmG vehicle. I read that it accelerates quite well for an electric vehicle. The down side is the cost. With newer batteries that last longer (hopefully cheaper), perhaps such vehicles would be less expensive to own and operate.

[Woody14619]

Originally Posted by Karl Roth

And don't skip right over cost

Plenty of SUVs and Hybrids are selling in that price range now. Go to your local Mercedes dealership and look at the price tags... they're still selling. Not as well as the Yaris, but they're still selling. $40K is quite reasonable to me, since I know I'll also be putting far less gas into the car during the year, polluting less, and will pay less in maintenance. Add the fact that it can use renewable energy as a power source with no change to the car, and it beats gas hands down.

Even if they sold an optional model with no battery whatsoever, just run it all off the 50mpg generator, it's better fuel efficiency than anything gas or hybrid on the road today.

Yes, batteries weigh more than gas. Chemistry tells us that's always going to be true, unless a new Einstein shows up and gives us some wondrous new alloy. But one battery today will last 5 to 10 years, can be recharged from various sources, and can often be recycled or reconditioned after it's use. Gas comes from one place, is burnt once, turns into pollution, and eventually will run out.

Gas cars can not continue to exist forever. We've had cars (and oil) for less than 100 years, and have already used a good chunk of the oil available on the planet. At best the "modern" gas car will survive another hundred to two hundred years before it runs out of fuel entirely. We need to find another solution... why not start trying some of them now?

[John_H]

Originally Posted by Woody14619

Even if they sold an optional model with no battery whatsoever, just run it all off the 50mpg generator, it's better fuel efficiency than anything gas or hybrid on the road today.

The 50mpg generator may be on the order of 20hp: far too small for non-battery use. Highway cruise is on the order of 15hp in the smaller cars. Smaller engines with a limited "performance" range can be made lighter and more fuel efficient, hence the 50mpg. The battery pack might be replaced with a capacitor bank instead to offer the stop and go performance without the plugin capability, but something is needed to make the very small, efficient gas generator usable.

The major benefit of something like the Volt would not be the improved efficiency of 50mpg but the ability to displace most of the use with plugin recharge.

[BigWarpGuy]

Originally Posted by John_H

The 50mpg generator may be on the order of 20hp: far too small for non-battery use. Highway cruise is on the order of 15hp in the smaller cars. Smaller engines with a limited "performance" range can be made lighter and more fuel efficient, hence the 50mpg. The battery pack might be replaced with a capacitor bank instead to offer the stop and go performance without the plugin capability, but something is needed to make the very small, efficient gas generator usable.

The major benefit of something like the Volt would not be the improved efficiency of 50mpg but the ability to displace most of the use with plugin recharge.

I have seen a T-Zero with a trailer housing a generator.
This looks like it could be small enough to be used in a Smart EV? It is the T-Zero propulsion unit.

[soareyes]

Originally Posted by BigWarpGuy

This looks like it could be small enough to be used in a Smart EV? It is the T-Zero propulsion unit.

And this is essentially the same unit used in the new Mini E. I should have one in my garage in about a month!

Stan

[Karl Roth]

With something like this perhaps
BBC NEWS | Technology | Virus battery could 'power cars'
there has to be a better battery.
karl

[t2cruiser]

Originally Posted by SuperGeek

Agreed. The best time for a hybrid is when gas prices are high and people have enough money to spend an extra 10-15 grand. Neither is the case today. For the volt, even moreso... 40 grand is a LOT of money for a car whose primary selling point is fuel mileage. At 2 bucks a gallon, the extra 20 grand will require 10,000 gallons of gas savings. Gas goes up to 6 bucks, suddenly that's only 3,000 gallons or so. Comparing to a 20mpg average car, that's 60,000 miles or 5 years of average driving when gas is triple what it is today. So, the Volt or any hybrid needs a major selling point of luxury or cool factor. Fuel savings alone won't cut it. And all of that is before economic pressures on consumers. Someone's at risk of losing a job, they're stupid to spend 40 grand on new tech from a company threatening bankruptcy. GM's in a real, real bind here.

Agreed, and Toyota has recently announced it is dropping the price of Prius to compete with Honda Insight. Clearly mass production principles will make for more affordable hybrids/electrics etc. And, as usual, Detroit is waaaay behind.

[winyan]

He drives a Prius.

Win

[Woody14619]

Originally Posted by John_H

The 50mpg generator may be on the order of 20hp: far too small for non-battery use.

I'm basing my numbers on the link sited at the top of the page. If you can go X miles on a charge, and they're quoting Y mpg at Z miles, then the engine (whatever it's hp) would be putting out (Z-X)/Y mpg. That number is about 48ish mpg based on the numbers in the article (which could all be made up...)

So when I say 50mpg generator, I mean it could power the electric motors to move the car 50 miles while burning 1 gallon. I'm not saying it's a certain cc, or hp, or some other measure that would get the same performance in an all gas car.

In any case, the fact that for 90% of it's driving life it would eat no gas for me, that's a huge plus. And even for people with 40+ mile commutes one way, your first 40 miles is all electric, which cuts down on the gas you use.

[John_H]

My point is you need *something* besides the generator to buffer the power for regenerative braking and those acceleration bursts.