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Originally Posted by Staska
I am currently driving Italian fiat Idea, with 1.3 diesel, getting close to 55 mpg.
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Not bad with 50% city driving.
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If I put electric motor 3-4 kw as fifth wheel
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5 HP isn't very much.
A 5th wheel adds weight (not good in the city) and drag when it's being used.
You need to have a mechanism that can lower and raise the 5th wheel (more weight) with enough power to transfer the electric power to the road, while it still needs a suspension to deal with the road.
Something like that gets complicated quickly.
Another technique is to add an electric assist motor to the rear wheels .
(the Idea is front wheel drive IIRC ?)
The rear wheels are already there, they have suspension, and you're not adding drag and weight for a 5the wheel .
This is something that's already been done.
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or as add-on with belt to the main engine
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That gets rather complicated as you need a clutch mechanism to detach the normal engine from the electric engine.
It's not something that's easy to do.