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Originally Posted by LoveLearn
I expect any really well designed diesel-driven electric configuration will be able to reduce engine speed to its least fuel-consumption rpm for the instantly-required throttle-controlled road-horsepower. I expect that diesel will be wonderfully reliable because it will be so ideally loaded, running almost all of the time at low rpms and high throttle settings.
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The whole point is that hybrids don't work that way. Yet.
They only add an additional electric drive to an ICE.
As a result, the ICE is still the main engine and it still needs to be fairly large to propel the car at
respectable speeds.
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Is sizing a diesel engine so it is most durable "over-sizing?"
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No, that's sizing it properly.
But that's not what's happening today.
A frugal VW 1.2L or 1.4L TDI continuously running at its optimal performance and generating electricity rather than directly driving a car, should well be able to keep the batteries (temporary storage) of a respectable car juiced up.
The downside would be that you can't drive it at high speed for extended periods as that would drain more power from the batteries than the engine can generate.
It's an option I'd gladly give up.
People would choose their engines based on the continuous power they require - if you tow a lot, you'll need a larger generator.
While I occasionally enjoy the German No-limits Autobahn,its net result is that cars are not designed for their most common application - cruising at set, officially limited speeds - but for driving long distances at speeds that are illegal in the rest of the world.
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I like having incredibly durable drive systems with robust reserve power-delivery capacity when I feel it's needed.
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It'd be possible on a real hybrid drive : ICE generator / electric motors driving the wheels / battery as temporary storage of the generated electricity.
The electric engines could produce far more power and torque than the little ICE generator - but only for short periods.