Can I use a GENERATOR to power an Electric car directly?

[kevintang]

i think you must use batteries to control the car .in order to control the engine easily.
as you know the current output from the generator is not very steady,so the motor runing not easy to control .in the high way most time the car runing at a Constant speed.so the batteries is a good way to deal with the promblem.

[lectruck]

If you are running veggie oil the emissions would be low already and you would probably pass the emissions test. This is still a win - win situation!!!!

[randerson0248]

In some states diesel cars and trucks are exempt from emission testing.

[MazdaMatt]

I love the deisel genset trailer idea. A short-range EV is beautiful, except when needing to go 300 miles... if i could hook up a trailer and go, i'd be VERY happy.

What are the technical details of charging a set of batteries with an engine that you are currently USING to drive an e. motor? I would think that the controller would not be very happy with the power supply.

[ConnClark]

Hmmmm... I wonder if by using an engine in a trailer you can beat the emissions rules. A trailer isn't attached to the car for normal operations so its not tested in an emissions test. I have never heard of anyone having to have a trailer emissions tested.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by MazdaMatt

What are the technical details of charging a set of batteries with an engine that you are currently USING to drive an e. motor? I would think that the controller would not be very happy with the power supply.

I know someone who did this (gas generator in the back of his pickup conversion).

I don't think the controller cares - it won't even "see" the charger - it just sees battery voltage, and as long as the max voltage at rest (eg: no load on the batteries, generator charging full tilt) is below the controller high cut-off specs, it'll be OK.

The charger is more likely to be a problem: the battery voltage while driving is going to be low, so the charger will be perpetually in bulk mode, drawing max amps and putting a high load on the generator.

I do believe the guy had trouble with his charger tripping the generator breaker if he accelerated briskly and sucked amps, pulling the pack voltage down. Could have just been a case of the charger not well matched to the generator though.

[MetroMPG]

I know someone else who built a Miata EV with a biodiesel genset in the trunk. He can drive it as an EV locally, and with the generator on, he can also maintain up to 80 km/h (50 mph) on level ground indefinitely in charge sustaining mode (as long as the genset doesn't run out of fuel!).

Cost him around $30k all in, I think.

I'm hoping to go visit him this summer and do a write up & video presentation of the car to post on EM.

[snuggle.pants]

I think the series hybrid would do the job. Check out Mother Earth News for old articles on this subject. The need for a battery pack or capacitor pack to handle some of the load is probably necessary. You could run on electric only for short trips and go to ICE when necessary. I live in central Texas, hot and humid 8 months or more of the year, air conditioning is almost a necessity in a car. I drive older cars and trucks and can repair them if/as needed. The nearest major city is about 50 miles away. I like my counrty lifestyle. I am self employed and work within 60 miles of home. I have seen an article on this site about changing the voltage on alternators. Essentially a generator could by modified to make 120VDC instead of AC. I've thought of using 2-3 GM digital alternators (produce 100amps just off idle in my 74 truck) belt driven by a 13-20hp ICE and ac compressor for cooling the people tank in a sand car chassis (really light weight). The first one would not need an air conditioning system but could prove useful to test the alternator/generator as charging.

[skyl4rk]

I built a series hybrid electric bicycle, see:

Series Hybrid with Hubmotor - MotoredBikes.com: Motorized Bicycle Forum

My experiment was a range extender, and it added 50% to the range of the batteries. For the weight and power, I would have been better off buying better quality batteries with more amp-hours rather than building a hybrid. However the experiment proved to me that a gas motor and permanent magnet motor of the right size would do the job of moving the bike around 100% of the time, rather than just extending range. The difficulty is in finding permanent magnet motors of the right size and which give the right voltage at the motors most efficient rpm.

If you don't need to start the motor with the permanent magnet generator, alternators are a better "alternative" to permanent magnet motors.

I thought this "permanent magnet" alternator looked pretty good:

Permanent Magnet Alternator Wind Blue Motor Wind

Add a couple of these to an electric start motor and you should have mucho amps.

Just because it is a hybrid does not mean it will be efficient. The efficiency comes with optimizing every part of the system.

[skyl4rk]

hybrid experiment