Quote:
Originally Posted by S Keith
You are confused because you haven't embraced the reality that 100% of the propulsive energy used by the car ultimately comes from gasoline. The battery needs to be just large enough to allow the hybrid system to work. Excess capacity is wasted. Additional electricity use necessitates replenishment with gas power.
You further likely don't realize that the amount of energy stored in any of those batteries listed is TINY... about 1-2 miles of SLOW pure EV driving. The Gen2/3 Prius pack usable capacity is almost identical to the total capacity of the tiny lead acid battery in back.
Lastly, passengers can get in an out of cars. Increasing the car's weight permanently by 40# will have a measurable negative impact.
Case in point:
Gen1 vs. Gen2 Prius
Gen1 capacity: 1.8kWh
Gen2 capacity: 1.3kWh
They deliberately downsized it because they realized it was too big and heavy - overkill for the application. The underlying HSD components are nearly identical. Most of the gains came from the aerodynamic improvements.
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Hi, thanks for putting it so bluntly. I feel educated and scalded in equal measure.