Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
It may be minimal but without it the car would get better MPG steady state highway. Toyota could build a Prius exactly like a Prius minus the drive battery, electric motors, add a regular starter and alternator, sell if for thousands less and it would get better MPG on real world highways. Someday if we haven't already we will see used Prius running around with the battery gutted from it and it just being a solid standard hatchback.
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The Prius can't run without a battery, as the drivetrain depends on MG1 (Motor Generator 1) to continuously vary the effective gear ratio of the ICE. The Prius is dead without MG1 and battery, extremely anemic (more so than normal) to accelerate without MG2, and has zero regen without MG2.
If we see Prii in the future running around sans battery and motors, they aren't Prii.
To JSH point that the hybrid tech improves highway fuel economy, it achieves that because of the ability to continuously vary the transmission and to keep the ICE operating near peak efficiency. We can accomplish much the same with a CVT, but we'd still need to upscale the ICE to compensate for the lack of power that an electric motor adds.
Not saying it isn't possible to achieve the same or better highway fuel economy than a hybrid, just saying an ICE that does that would either be very undesirable to the public, or have other expensive technology such as turbos.