Electric Hybrid is not what it is cracked up to be. It does nothing
for you
on the autobahn or the free way. In a passenger car the
depreciation is
excessive as batteries wear out and fail. It is too
complicated.
They should
take it out of F1 cars and switch to mechanical turbo
compound. Mechanical
turbo compound is 15 to 20% more efficient than
electric turbo compound
anyway.
Mercedes won with Ferrari 3rd. Honda completed the race which
was
amazing given limited testing on such a complicated car.
Paul
Lamar
John Dinkel wrote: Paul, BUT . . . F1 cars are what they are
cracked
up to be: Wrecks! jd
A Toyota Prius will get more MPG on the free
way if you take the
battery out. Half the drag at 50 to 60 MPH is tire
rolling
resistance. Less weight... lower rolling resistance. More MPG.
Paul
Lamar
Paul --
I like the idea of a Prius highway fuel-economy test (or
more
"real-world" fuel-economy test) with the battery removed. Should
be
fairly simple to do. All you really need are a couple of
identical-model
Priuses in equal condition. I wonder how much work
would be involved to make
the Prius run without the battery in the
system.
As a preliminary you could
just load one down with an appropriate
amount of lead weights to sort of
simulate the proof-of-concept. That
could be done with a couple of rental cars
and a whole bunch of those
lead-weight bags the movie crews use to hold down
the light stands.
(I know this stuff because I used to be in the Screen Actors
Guild.
No lie.)
By the way. What is this F1 I see people talking about? Is
that some
sort of racing thingie? Seems to me I used to watch and even care
a
little about something called Formula One, but that was ages ago,
back when
cars were cars and men were men and drivers raced cars
against other drivers
and cars. They were actual cars. You know; a
driver could climb into the thing
and start it up and drive it in a
race. But all that went away. What is this F1
stuff?
I know this about this F1 whizzledoodle: It ain't nuthin' I give
a
shit about.
Don Fuller
You would want to do it for more than the range
on just the battery.
The taxi cab companies are buying up cheap prius's in
LA with dead
batteries.
They have learned how to detect the single cell
that is giving
problems and changing out just that cell. The problem is if one
cell is
bad on an old battery another cell will not be far behind.
If I had
one with a dead battery (perish the thought) I would take out
the battery and
sell it to a cab company for spares and run it with
out the battery.
The
acceleration would also be improved over the discharged
battery
circumstance.
I recently tested a Chevy Volt. Running at 80 MPH on
the free way it loses
one mile of battery range for every mile driven. It
starts with only
30 mile range on the battery. Then it takes over eight hours
to recharge
the battery. It weighs about 4000 pounds with a 1.4 L ICE.
When
the battery is dead the acceleration is leisurely to say the least.
Paul
Lamar
I think we're agreeing that, absent big government subsidies (who else
but the government will provide subsidies?) these things do not make
economic sense. I once got into a long and tedious discussion with a
tedious electric-car advocate. He was driving a Nissan Leaf and was
very, very proud of himself. He said he drove on the LA freeways at the
lowest possible speed and drafted right up behind 18-wheelers in order
to gain range. He also knew all the places he could recharge it for
free, such as the local grocery store, where he would spend a long time
on his grocery list. He had also taken advantage of every subsidy known
to civilization, including all the bennies at time of purchase and
whatever he got from the system in the form of rebates for installing
solar panels on his home.
As he explained (actually, as I figured out) he was a master at lining
up for every freeloader deal on the planet. As much as possible, he was
living off the system or, more correctly, he was living off of us. So we
were all paying for his magnificence and, in the bargain, having to put
up with his decidedly dangerous behavior behind the wheel by him either
drafting 18-wheelers or causing every other motorist to dive around him
just to miss running up his sorry ass as he puttered along at somewhere
around 45-50 mph on the 405..
But he was mighty, mighty proud of himself. I had to give him that.
Hugs and kisses, and it's always a pleasure.
Don Fuller
The Rotary Engine News Letter. Powered by Linux. ACRE NL web
site.
http://www.rotaryeng.net You Tube
http://tinyurl.com/beqqxas
Copyright
1998-2015 All world wide rights reserved.