[Ecky]

In the past I've read many of the threads on this topic here, and my understanding is that most alternators are not very efficient, somewhere in the ballpark of 60% peak. To my knowledge, brushed motors generally have electromagnets on the rotor, and permanent magnets in the stator. Brushes are necessary because one needs to transfer electricity to the spinning rotor, and these brushes cause friction. Brushless motors by contrast have permanent motors in the rotor and electromagnets in the stator.

Right now I have most of the hybrid system removed from my Insight. The large brushless 3 phase AC motor is still in place, and I've been using that to generate 12v for the car rather than adding an alternator. My setup is as follows:

3 phase brushless motor, producing ~70-300v AC -> Schottky diode rectifier, efficiently converting 3 phase AC into 70-300v DC -> Meanwell power supply with its internal rectifier bypassed, producing 14v DC

My question is this: If brushless motors are generally more efficient, why aren't alternators brushless? Does it make them more expensive, or larger?