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Old 01-18-2012, 11:53 AM   #23 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
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Oh, another thing I keep thinking about, but forget to mention is power steering/power brakes/ and anything else that normally runs off the engine.

In an electric car with a generator added, all those things are already designed to run without the engine. (My Metro has manual everything, except for power brakes, which was easy to correct by adding a small electric vacuum pump.)

In a parallel hybrid where a person would want it to be able to run either with the engine on or not, steering and brakes would need to be manual to start with (more typical on a lighter/older/simpler car) or converted to manual (such as swapping out the steering mechanism) or converted to electric (like I did with the power brakes on the Metro)

For me, starting with the manual everything vehicle would be the easiest way to go. A modern, front-wheel-drive crossover might be the MOST difficult to convert to still have steering and brakes with the engine off. I think that's also one reason why the EMIS system is designed as a "boost" instead of having any electric-only range - it means the original steering and braking systems never have to be modified in any way.
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