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Old 08-05-2012, 07:34 PM   #3 (permalink)
Ryland
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honda cb125 - '74 Honda CB 125 S1
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The only way you are going to make it work is if you have a battery buffer so that the generator is always running at peek efficacy and use the battery buffer to absorb that energy while the generator is producing to much and use the buffer when you need to climb a hill or to start moving from a dead stop.
but even at that it's still only going to be most efficient with city driving, direct mechanical connection to the wheels has losses that are under 10% if I remember right (someone had a chart a while back) while an gas to electric to mechanical drive train has losses well over 10% between the engine and wheels, that is why vehicles like the Prius and Volt have a planetary gear power splitter, a more efficient prototype drive train that Chevy apparently tested for the Volt involved the engine running at a constant speed and the motor/generator was used to vary the speed of the car but they wanted that feel and sound of the engine varying in speed that people are used to, then at highway speed, when you are most likely to need the gas engine anyway, the engine is running at the ideal speed to power the car and is tuned for the best mileage at that speed and your gas mileage would go way up.
Reasons why having the engine run at a set speed would increase your mileage so greatly is that if it's tuned for only a single speed the exhaust, intake, timing and everything can be optimized for that speed, you no longer need a throttle plate even and you save weight and space, it's like designing a trumpet that only plays a single note, you get rid of all the other valves and junk.
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