Quote:
Originally Posted by Piotrsko
You don't need huge quantities of batteries unless you want lots of range
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The thing with batteries is yes and no.
Having owned a 24kWh Nissan Leaf and fully understanding the range limitations I still felt range anxiety. The thing was most days it was fine. Then one day someone would be like "wanna go out?" and name a place that was just out of range for the little amount of electricity left on the Leaf on that particular day and hour. With no place to fast charge it made it to where I couldn't just drive somewhere I hadn't planned at whim, even if it wasn't all that far.
For an example, the Leaf had a 80% range option I would use if I didn't have a long way to drive the next day. So that would give me about 60 miles range with no heat or A/C, plenty for around town. So I'd do about 20 miles durring the day but use the heater or A/C, especialy the A/C on the way back home. So that ended up using about 30 miles range leaving me with 30 miles. Then getting home some friend or family memeber would ask to go to a store or restaurant or something that was 15 miles away with no place to charge at the destination... This would put me at a chance of running out of juice on the road, or at least very close. The car would start flashing lights and things that it was going to run out, and I'd make it back home with the guess-o-meter showing flashing bars. Ah, but on the way back someone would want an icecream... "NO! I don't have enough range!"
Since a car like a 24kWh Leaf would do well for 90% of my driving, having something like the range extender on the BMW i3 would make a lot of sense to me. It doesn't have to be a full fledged engine. A single or twin cylinder that produces some 25hp would do. Something that could just keep the battery from discharging anymore on that last leg of a long day.