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I think the EPA designs (at least the ones that I looked at) were for a full sized SUV.
Not even close to what I am talking about, a 2000 pound 5 passenger vehicle.
In wheel drives that are individually self adjustable eliminate the swash plate hydraulic motors siamesed to the otherwise conventional differential in the EPA design. Reciprocating swash plate motors are notoriously inefficient at higher speeds, since they would be revolving at the same speed as a conventional prop shaft.
Accumulator costs are also greatly overestimated because they want to use composite construction which is totally unnecessary in a small vehicle that only needs around 6 gallons of high pressure fluid reserve.
Also their calculations are flawed in that their design does not use in wheel drives, so many unnecessary components are retained, and efficiency is reduced. They readily admit that the key component is a "new sheet of paper" design that is specifically used for HH applications.
In fact the close to 25% reduction in per vehicle components, elimination of close to 800parts in a conventional vehicle would result in a car that cost LESS than any conventional vehicle and considerably LESS than any electric hybrid.
Also eliminates the potentially costly battery, which even in a Prius of Insight 1 is a costly replacement. Also consider the planetary gear set in the Prius 'transmission" at $8000 replacement cost. In fact you could spend $15k replacing 5 individual part assemblies in a Prius (that are not serviceable with smaller individual parts).
It has already reached a point where the 10 year old hybrid used market sees a lower resale value, especially when mileages exceed 150k, and the complexity of electric hybrids becomes an issue.
In the future HH series design, the power train components will be virtually maintenance free. Most of the normal power train repairs will be a thing of the past, which is good, because the future repair scenario will be much more focused on the non power train components, in particular the accessories and electrical driven luxuries that are considered essential today by most buyers.
Comparing the EPA saimesed swash plate design to a good in wheel drive as linked in my first post of this thread is like comparing my a Model T to my civic VX.
regards
Mech
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