Quote:
Originally Posted by rmay635703
Hmm, I wonder if one of these would bolt up to a Daihatsu move mini kei van? Daihatsu and Toyo are close cousins and have interchanged parts at different times.
What would be one better though woudl be if you could get the WHOL frontend of the prius for about $200, then you could make other cars into hybrids  |
Don't those little Kei trucks/vans already get 50+ MPG? Atkinson cycle has horrible low end torque, that's why you only see it in hybrids were the electric motor can supply the low end torque to get moving. So I don't think it'd work well in a cargo vehicle.
Now what I'd do is buy a 1NZ-FXE (or a small diesel) and make a 'battery pack-less' series hybrid. Have the engine drive a generator to supply electricity for the traction motor/s, with start/stop, a small battery pack to supply power to start the engine/power the traction motor/s while the engine spins up, regenerative braking to charge the battery pack. You'd cut down on weight and cost without the huge battery packs in current hybrids, plus with hub traction motors you'd cut down on complexity, cost, and power transmission loss and the engine, since it only provides power to the generator, can spin at the peak efficiency rpm range. Basically this is how diesel/electric locomotives work.