I'd love to have a hybrid!

[Chris D.]

I had a rental recentally and I'm not here to dog the prius, but it didn't have
enough power to get out of the way and to me its borderline dangerious..

great car for fuel economy, but for those moments you mite have to step on it to avoid an accident, its just not there.. I'm by far no hotrodder kid that wants speed, looks and performance.

just an observation..

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi Chris,

In certain situations, it does feel slow; but if this was an issue, then I think there would be a lot more Prius' in the body shop? It accelerates onto a highway as quickly as it needs to; and certainly it can be driven much faster than is good for FE.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I noticed something today: if you run the heat, the Prius' FE drops. I don't think it's because the fan is drawing amperage (although that may be part of it) -- but that it keeps the engine running to heat up the coolant.

So far, I'm averaging 59.4mpg. I'm going to add some zigzag tape, and see how that goes.

[bennelson]

How bad do you want a hybrid?

Bad enough to build one?

I dare anyone on this forum to go for it.

A while back, I was all set to buy a CRX for possible conversion to hybrid. (It was the direct predecessor of the Insight!) But the punk kid sold it to somebody else first, even though I had an appointment to buy it! (punk kid!)

I have been toying with the idea of converting my truck to hybrid.

A while back, I got to drive a Insight for the first time. I got 69.7 MPG over 20+ miles having no idea what I was doing! Nice little car...

[MetroMPG]

Well, as trebuchet pointed out, you'd probably save more fuel overall if you hybridized your truck than the CRX.

[Thalass]

Any electric car could be turned into a series hybrid, as long as the charger could be made to work while the car was moving (many have lockouts to prevent you driving away while it's plugged in)

That's what I plan on doing eventually.

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by Thalass

Any electric car could be turned into a series hybrid, as long as the charger could be made to work while the car was moving (many have lockouts to prevent you driving away while it's plugged in)

That's what I plan on doing eventually.

Forget the charger and just go with a generator direct to the battery pack. Most cars have chargers that draw about 2kW from the outlet, while in turn they use 5 or more kW just moving down the road.

Then you don't have to worry about a lockout shutting you down.

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi Chris,

In certain situations, it does feel slow; but if this was an issue, then I think there would be a lot more Prius' in the body shop? It accelerates onto a highway as quickly as it needs to; and certainly it can be driven much faster than is good for FE.

I actually have a problem with the Prius, and all parallel hybrids by extension, and performance and FE are the reasons.

I've read articles and posts from numerous people on the Internet, (perhaps some here?), that parallel hybrids are more efficient than series hybrids. Something that doesn't stack up in my mind. I think if the Prius were re-designed today, with say, a 750cc twin, (basically cut the existing engine in half), tuned to get peak efficiency while driving a generator, which drove electric motorS (plural, I'd like some AWD), you'd have a higher-performing, more efficient vehicle. Still using a battery so as to shut off the engine during lights and during initial accel, and allow it to be used as a plug-in, of course.

I'm of a mindset that you can have high-efficiency without high-performance, or high-performance without high-effciency, but having both be low is astoundingly stupid. Which is why I'm always arguing with my father about his Bravada. It is actually slower than the Prius, if you can imagine that, and gets astoundingly poor FE. Though it could be worse, it will pull away from a stock H2.

Pardon the rant, the Prius is just the bee in my bonnet right now. Don't nobody get me started on friction brakes, that conversation will turn bad fast!

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I think that serial hybrids are simpler (and lighter?), and therefore they can be more efficient in all situations. And they are definitely more efficient in "city" driving. And if there is some sort of CVT transmission, then serial hybrids will do pretty darn well at highway speeds, too.

If you think about it, the amperage an electric motor uses is kinda' like an ICE's displacement, right? So, an electric motor has a variable displacement; whereas having an ICE with variable displacement is a tougher issue.

[The Atomic Ass]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi,

I think that serial hybrids are simpler (and lighter?), and therefore they can be more efficient in all situations. And they are definitely more efficient in "city" driving. And if there is some sort of CVT transmission, then serial hybrids will do pretty darn well at highway speeds, too.

If you think about it, the amperage an electric motor uses is kinda' like an ICE's displacement, right? So, an electric motor has a variable displacement; whereas having an ICE with variable displacement is a tougher issue.

Thing is, it really wouldn't need a transmission, because electric motors can be designed to be flexible... Tesla Roadster's motor, for example, goes out to 13K I believe? A hub motor only needs to do between 500-2000 RPM at highway speed depending on the size of the tire.

Besides this, most of the electric motors I'm seeing in home-made conversions and in production vehicles are no more than 9" in diameter. Imagine the torque gain of a 14" diameter motor, which would fit inside most 15" rims.

And the analogy isn't quite correct, it's more like the size of the electric motor is comparable to the displacement of gas, just that the gas has a minimum consumption threshold dictated by it's displacement, whereas the electric motor does not. Which is of course, a good thing.