But I am terribly disappointed at the misinformation and almost religious devotion to series, and all the associated misinformation, special pleadings, and outright BS. It only reinforces the idea that EV'ers are completely indifferent to the upstream power source, and that driving the wheels directly is some sort of sin, even though it has far more potential, especially on long constant speed trips if you are carrying an engine.
For example, here is a page about the t-zero range extender:
ACP AC Propulsion Series Range Extending Trailer prototype. Toyota Rav4-EV Hybrid prototype. Alan Cocconi. 2000 BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle). RXT-G. LongRanger. Hybrid Trailer. EV Range Extender. GenSet. "Stock configuration 42 MPG cross country series hybrid drive"?!? 42MPG, Really? with a picture of an SUV there? The thing is like
$75k!!! and behind a small 1500lb car it only got 30-35. I call bullsh*t, major bullsh*t on these guys.
Meanwhile, Chancey spent
$500 on an "unlimited" range civic pusher, and he is rolling. Please lets not ignore physics, or everything hypermilers have learned about driving efficiency, or speculate wildly about inefficient electrical torque conversions, pandering only to abstracting all power sources to a "pure" electric source and thinking ease of automation is the only other consideration.
There is no reason a microcontroller can't shift (including neutral/coast) and control throttle efficiently either and augment with the battery as well, my prius does it, but it is limited in efficiency BECAUSE of the constant part-series nature of the design, made for your average "idiot". Meanwhile a similarly sized and heavier 5 speed gen1 insight can kick the t-zeros (and priuses) ass in mpg, so can a rabbit or a metro or a lot of other "sinful" ICE cars, especially cross country, with no hypermiling even.