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One major roadblock I can see is that this is much more complex than Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, which replaces all of those complex cams/elliptical gears wi

One major roadblock I can see is that this is much more complex than Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, which replaces all of those complex cams/elliptical gears with a pair of electric motors. Not every manufacture is going to want to build a hybrid system into their cars, but an eCVT can be built with a single electric motor that acts as a speed controller for the planet gears. And this motor could be effectively controlled directly by a generator attached to the ICE, removing the need for a second battery to control it. So I think this is going to stay a bike/scooter/motorcycle system and won't make the leap into automotive.

MisterTea 2y ago
> One major roadblock I can see is that this is much more complex than Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, which replaces all of those complex cams/elliptical gears with a pair of electric motors. I could make that transmission in a machine shop. The synergy drive needs a multi billion dollar semiconductor industry. The complexity reduced is maintenance from reduction in moving parts.
- simulator5g 2y ago
  > The synergy drive needs a multi billion dollar semiconductor industry. Your machine shop needs a multi billion dollar metallurgy industry as well. The difference is mostly the age of the industries, metal working has been around for much longer and the knowledge is nolonger confined to a small group.
  - MisterTea 2y ago
    This isn't about knowledge but ability. There are guides to build a lathe from scratch in your back yard using scrap metal. You can't do that with semi conductors.
- mywittyname 2y ago
  Late to the reply, but someone can absolutely build an functional and usable eCVT with 50 era tech. And they could use manifold vacuum as a speed controller, like they do with old school automatics. People underestimate just how simple and clever HSD really is. Or you could make it a "manual" eCVT where the speed control is managed by the driver using something like a potentiometer. This is how the linked CVT works in bike its applications (though, I'm sure it uses a controller built by the billion dollar semiconductor industry instead).

MisterTea 2y ago

> One major roadblock I can see is that this is much more complex than Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, which replaces all of those complex cams/elliptical gears with a pair of electric motors. I could make that transmission in a machine shop. The synergy drive needs a multi billion dollar semiconductor industry. The complexity reduced is maintenance from reduction in moving parts.

simulator5g 2y ago
> The synergy drive needs a multi billion dollar semiconductor industry. Your machine shop needs a multi billion dollar metallurgy industry as well. The difference is mostly the age of the industries, metal working has been around for much longer and the knowledge is nolonger confined to a small group.
- MisterTea 2y ago
  This isn't about knowledge but ability. There are guides to build a lathe from scratch in your back yard using scrap metal. You can't do that with semi conductors.
mywittyname 2y ago
Late to the reply, but someone can absolutely build an functional and usable eCVT with 50 era tech. And they could use manifold vacuum as a speed controller, like they do with old school automatics. People underestimate just how simple and clever HSD really is. Or you could make it a "manual" eCVT where the speed control is managed by the driver using something like a potentiometer. This is how the linked CVT works in bike its applications (though, I'm sure it uses a controller built by the billion dollar semiconductor industry instead).