[Christ]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

I'm more than a little puzzled here. You're talking about adding a Stirling engine to the exhaust of a conventional IC engine, but having that drive a generator which (with batteries) drives the wheel motors (or other electric propulsion). Aren't you getting more than a bit Rube Goldbergish? Why not cut out the IC, and have the Stirling drive a generator which extends the range of your plug-in hybrid?

The battery wouldn't even have to be that large, say enough for 5-10 minutes of driving while the SE comes on-line, so you save on weight & cost.

Mean while, what drives the sterling motor? It has to have a source of energy, unless you're channeling battery heat into it, which would work out great, since you have to vent your lead-acid batteries anyway.

That might be a consideration, to reclaim some battery heat as energy to help recharge the batteries or something, which would still cut out the ICE altogether.

The Mini kit uses an ICE also, just an extremely small one that kicks on when the batteries start to lose power, and it only powers a generator which charges the batteries again while you're driving. In that case, something to reclaim energy from the heat lost through the exhaust would be great.