|
East of Broken Bow |
I'm not that great at explaining things sometimes, so I'll try a little more detail.
I'm not speaking of regular hybrids, but rather plug in hybrids, thinking they would be most practical to people like me, in my situation.
Instead of a 300 or 500 mile battery, it would have a 50 or 75 mile battery, and a small engine and generator. Plug it in overnight, and it would draw very little juice, and run the average commute with battery power. However, in event of a power outage, or long distance trip, just add fuel (e-85 would be my personal preference) and drive as far as you want with 5 min refills, plus if you drained the battery in case of emergency to keep the lights on (think last year's near grid collapse) you could still make it to work.
In my opinion (worth exactly what you paid for it) the current weaknesses of total EVs are the range, and charging. A plug in hybrid would solve both of those problems. I hear again and again, an EV would be nice, but I'd want an ICE car for longer trips, especially in cold climates. Well, instead of another car, why not an EV that is ready for longer trips. As to the 50 to 75 mile range on battery power, not many people have a commute longer than that, so daily use would be electric only. On a 100 mile trip, 1/2 to 3/4 of the trip could be on the battery, with no nail biting for fear of running out of range.
There are a couple of these out there already, Hyundai makes one, and cost-wise it is cheaper than their comparable all electric EV with a 300+ mile range, so IMO, that shows it can be done cost effectively, unless for some reason Hyundai is selling it as a loss leader.
As a bonus, when the battery needed replacing, it would only cost 1/5 as much, at least in theory. | |
|
Question for Ed Boysun
