Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertSmalls
However, using a generator as a range extender is somewhat silly.
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Why? It seems perfectly sensible to me (and to all those engineers working on things like the Chevy Volt :-)). Say I have an EV with a 40 mile range, and I want to make a 50 mile trip. So I crank up the generator, and effectively drive 40 miles on electric, 10 miles on gas (even though the generator is running all the time). Seems like that's better than driving a gas vehicle the full 50 miles.
Of course there are losses in the generator, but what you overlook is that an automobile engine is usually running at much less than its peak efficiency. Hook it up to a generator, though, and you can run it at best efficiency all the time, which ought to do a lot to compensate for the generation losses.