Not sure if you realize it, but you and I are reading from the same hymnal so to speak.
Maybe 4K worth of generators can put out enough juice to keep my car charged up at highway speed....at that speed, the car would mostly be running off the output of the generator anyway, not the batteries; anything extra would go to keeping the batteries topped off. For those without pickups, maybe the generators could go on a hitch-mounted cargo rack, although that could easily exceed the weight rating of the car, hence a small trailer being a reasonable answer...with the advantge of being unhooked once you're back home and commuting, thus converting the car back into a pure EV. This is the only way I see EVs replacing ICEs as primary transport.
Refilling a generator or trailer on the road is as convenient as topping off your car at a gas station, the tank is simply in a different location
I think we all agree that the ideas have potential, the only thing is how much power should we budget for the generator? Do we use the bare minimum and let it run all the time on a road trip, or use what came with the car (in my case, a diesel running on WVO), possibly putting out more power than needed, and then compensate for the surplus of power by reducing the duty cycle of the ICE?
Of course, in a recent post, I did mention some other small diesels that may have potential, so we're not necessarily stuck with the car's original ICE any more. I may look at some of the powerplants from some of the bigger mowers and off-road vehicles (John Deere Gators etc), I'll just have to see. For my project, I do want to stay with diesel since they are more efficient, my other cars burn that, and I like to use alt fuels in them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rgathright
No solution is going to replace what gasoline gave us because of its high BTU per gallon. At 40 Mpg many cars can now go 500+ miles without a fill up. No pure EV built today is going to offer that with the convenience of a "quick fill up" at the local charging station.
Sorry, but the "it has to be easy argument" is why we are so dependent on foreign oil in the first place.
The topic here is discussing popular opinion of the EV charging trailer. I think that it works and will be a solution that you see many weekend travelers using 20 years from now. |