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Originally Posted by Swordsmith
How is the Volt doing it? Or is my understanding of how it works all wrong, and the Volt isn't generating electric power from its engine, but rather putting power from the ICE strictly to the wheels, in sort of an either-or-both configuration?
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The Volt is using planetary gears to split the mechanical energy so the gas engine or the electric motor can drive it.
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Where are you getting that 18000 watt figure, by the way? Is that peak load, or average? Because peak wouldn't be necessary, the key would be to generate more than the average requirement, so you'd be recharging the battery while operating, but the battery would be supplying the power needed when you're drawing more than the generator makes.
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My 1,400 pound electric car draws 6,000 watts while going 35mph on a flat straight road, 18,000 seems high as that is 24hp and I thought that the average car uses 15-20hp at highway speeds.
This same topic just came up on our electric auto club email list, turns out the Nissan Leaf does not like towing trailers, so while a pusher trailer would work fine a generator or battery trailer would not work well.
There is a wide agreement that pusher trailers will also use less fuel then a generator trailer and weigh less, most common that I've seen is the diesel VW front end with an automatic transmission, a regular gear box left in 5th gear should also work if you have control over the clutch, the transmission should even weigh less then a generator with fewer losses then size and tune it to run most efficiently at cruising speed.
The only issue with a pusher trailer is backing up, but if you use the front end of a small car then you have steering and people have made simple steering set ups for backing up trailers that I hear work really well.
Battery trailers are the other option, but the one example I read about took a vehicle with 100 mile range and put the same battery pack in a trailer to "double" it's range and they got a 180 mile range instead of 200.
I like the battery idea because the rest of the time it can be used to power other stuff or as a back up to power your house, all without burning extra fuel.
I of course want to build a battery powered pusher trailer that could be used for cargo as well behind any vehicle down to a bicycle.