• culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    I want a van version of these EREVs so bad. Make it into a camper van with a solar array on top, and it’s already got an onboard generator integrated. As long as the battery range is ~200 miles, it would be so ideal for slow road-tripping around.

    • Lyudmila [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      10 days ago

      EREVs or REx EVs aren’t the same thing as a hybrid car. Lemme break down all the different steps along the way.

      ICE cars - fully gasoline powered, the powertrain is an internal combustion engine which sends rotational energy from the crankshaft through a transmission and down a driveshaft that turns the wheels.

      Hybrid Cars - This is also called a Parallel Hybrid. It adds a small battery and electric motor to the mix which go through a “power split device”, a planetary gear device that functions like a combination of a transmission and a differential. The electric motor can power the wheels, or the ICE engine can power them. The battery is only able to be recharged through Regen braking or from the alternator when the ICE engine is running. Typically the electric motor only is used at low speeds or when beginning to move forward from a stop.

      Plug-in Hybrid Cars - Still a Parallel Hybrid. The difference is that the battery is larger and you have the ability to plug it in to recharge the battery. You’re also able to travel some distance entirely from the electric motor. Typical electric range is under 80km/50 mi.

      Extended Range Electric Cars - Also called a series hybrid. The ICE engine cannot power the wheels at all, it is a generator which recharges the battery. The electric motors provide 100% of the power to the wheels. It’s a battery electric vehicle with a gasoline-powered generator taking up some of your trunk space in exchange for recharging your battery.

      Battery Electric Cars - No ICE engine at all, it’s just the battery and the electric motor.

      • AnarchoAnarchist [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        10 days ago

        Extended Range Electric Cars

        Isn’t this basically how diesel electric trains work?

        The trains obviously have smaller, less advanced batteries, but by relegating the ICE to a generator, you’re able to tweak its performance and squeeze out a lot more efficiency. Instead of a normal ICE car, That’s going to spend some amount of time idling, a decent amount of time accelerating, under and over RPMing, it’s basically designed to work only when it needs to, and within the most efficient parameters it can, when it does.

    • sadschmuck [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      10 days ago

      But in China, the emergence of extended-range EVs — which run primarily on electricity but use a gasoline engine to charge the battery when it runs low — and the rise in ultra-fast charging could solve the issue once and for all.

      I guess they are a bit different from regular hybrids.