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Hybrids lose so many benefits of a pure EV vehicle. EV drivetrains are much simpler. No complicated transmission or ICE. Easier to produce, scale, and maintai
by oillio 9y ago
Hybrids lose so many benefits of a pure EV vehicle.
EV drivetrains are much simpler. No complicated transmission or ICE. Easier to produce, scale, and maintain.
Hybrids require all the complexity of both systems, and the weight.
- foolfoolz 9y agobenefits to who? the best thing for the car buyer is a standard ICE car - every mechanic out there can fix it. the worst thing out there for the consumer is an electric car that can only be fixed by the dealer
- martin_bech 9y agoHow are you going to get gas, when the rest of us are driving EVs?
- greglindahl 9y agoThat's a great argument against every new technology in a car. For example, only a subset of body shops can do aluminum.
- thinkling 9y agoFWIW, extra complexity and complicated transmissions can be largely avoid with the "range extended EV" approach, where the gas engine is a generator producing electricity and doesn't drive the wheels directly. That said, the best vehicle in that style that I can think of, the Chevy Volt, does actually allow the engine to drive the wheels and has two planetary gear/clutch systems. On the plus side, the gas engine is expected to need much less maintenance than a regular engine that's used in a much wider power range.
- greglindahl 9y agoYou want the BMW i3 with range extender, the gasoline engine only attaches to a generator.
- Avshalom 9y agoMeh? I mean I've owned many cars over the last 15 years or so and it's never been the ice/transmission/drivetrain that's failed. Meanwhile every car I've ever had has suffered from window motor failure.
- ProfessorLayton 9y agoIt is worth pointing out that the Toyota Prius, despite being a hybrid, is regularly featured as one of the most reliable cars out there, including regular ICE cars.
- WalterBright 9y agoI've never quite understood this. Why not have the gas engine simply drive a generator which charges the batteries / drives the electric motors, like a diesel-electric locomotive? Then there's no dual drivetrain issue. Even for an all-electric car, it'd be nice to have a small gas engine to drive a generator to charge the batteries if you're too far from a socket.
- bproven 9y agoYeah, I'd love to know why this hasn't been an option. Seems like the best of both worlds
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- CapitalistCartr 9y agoI work at a train museum. Locomotives are fundamentally different. They have to have electric traction motors to grab the rails. Weight is unimportant. 125 tons. That's a quarter million pounds, 113,400 kg. Automobiles need every weight-saving trick the engineers can pull off. Such as combination drives.
- mveety 9y agoAlso trains don't change speed super often so they can have their prime mover running in the power band all of the time. A car changes speed at lot so its more inefficient to have the prime mover running in its power band constantly to drive the generator.
- geor3 9y agoThis is one of the functions of the Chevy Volt - "...its internal combustion engine powers an electric generator to extend the vehicle's range as needed. When the engine is running it may be periodically mechanically linked (by a clutch) to a planetary gear set, and hence the output drive axle, to improve energy efficiency." -- from wikipedia page on the Volt