Quote:
Originally Posted by tech2
This made me wonder, why does everyone use a standard tranny?
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Hey, that is a pretty neat idea: using a heavy flywheel. We'll have to see if anyone with experience can punch holes in the theory. It would be a breakthrough if it worked!
The reason so many have stayed away from automatics is that you lose
up to 15% of your efficiency to the torque convertor, which just sits there and turns the energy into heat when not locked up. There is such a delicate balance between carrying enough batteries to get any range versus being able to make the car able to carry all of the weight versus getting any speed out of the thing...etc that most folks just try to find a standard tranny.
Some of the automatic guys just connect directly to their input shaft - no flywheel or torque convertor. Saves weight to help with the balance of weight/power/speed that way, too.
Many guys with rear-wheel drive rigs just adapt the motor directly to the driveshaft, and save more weight that way, but it's pretty well a given that you'll have to run the higher voltages and amperages to be able to take off.
It'll take a month of Sundays to go through them, but there are three threads here of folks who have done just what you're thinking of doing.
Here is the link to the three. You'll learn a lot!
