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Old 12-21-2011, 10:17 PM   #16 (permalink)
Ken Fry
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic View Post

Make it so you can run either or power units together or independently. Plug and play separately or together.

regards
Mech
Wonderful story!

The electric and gas operation are independent... kinda. You can run it on electricity alone all the time, if you have a consistent routine, and drive less than 15,000 miles per year. You can also start out with nearly dead batteries and drive it on gasoline alone, with the genset set charging the batteries and supplying the steady-state motive power needs. (In this mode, in suburban/urban traffic, it gains about 1% charge per mile driven.)

This is where the "kinda" comes in. For good performance, the batteries have to supply more power (briefly and occasionally) than the very small engine can deliver. The batteries also absorb energy from regenerative braking. So, while I can make the Zing! go with the batteries entirely disconnected, it really needs the batteries for good performance.

Thanks again for the inspiring story.
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