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Hi,
Do we know if the Volt's ICE is an Atkinson cycle? I wonder what the trade off in efficiency is between the way they have chosen to vary the ICE's RPM to match the requirements of the electric traction motor (and to NOT charge the battery, so that you will need to charge it with the plug) VS running the ICE at a fixed RPM where it is running at a peak efficiency and just charge the battery?
In other words, they chose to only run the ICE to power the traction motor in order to force you to charge the battery only with the plug. The alternative would be to run the ICE more efficiently, and then use the plug to "top off" the battery.
Which way will yield better FE?
My guess is for shorter trips, that require only a little bit of the ICE, the way they have done it might be better -- the shorter (over the battery's range) the better. But for longer trips, say driving all day and using the whole tank of gas in one trip, I would guess that the alternate would have been much better.
If the alternative method is the more efficient way to use the gasoline, then it seems like they have made a poor choice. Because in the current set up, you will use more gasoline AND more electricity...
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