That just makes them hybrids.
Yeah, none of this is new? The Prius did the same thing.
The difference that I can see is that unlike traditional hybrid cars the gas engine is not connected to the drivetrain and only charges the battery.
The article suggests that it is less efficient than a traditional hybrid system. I’d like to know by how much and why.
That’s exactly what makes it inefficient - you have losses from both the generator and the motor. Generator + motor mode was the least efficient mode in the Bolt (which saved weight by not having a gearbox, so could only mechanically connect the gas engine at high speeds)
Honda hybrids mostly work this way except at very high speeds, where the motor is used directly. It simplifies the design by removing a traditional transmission, but they’re the least efficient hybrids on the road. Honestly not worth it IMO.
They do make sense however if you’re using them to do short commutes 99% of the time and only use the gas engine in the rare occasions where you go for a longer road trip.
Make no mistake, a miniature, portable power plant is nowhere near as efficient as a utility version. An industrial power plant burns less than a tenth of a gallon of natural gas to generate a kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity. Once the battery goes dry on the nascent Ramcharger, the burly truck will slurp 27 gallons of gas to travel an additional 545 miles, which works out to a relatively anemic 20 miles of range per gallon of gas.
It’s really pathetic that the journalist didn’t put these into directly comparable terms.
I’m just wondering if it is truly less efficient than a traditional plug-in hybrid system. The example they use is a huge truck which will be inefficient no matter what.
Also, does it really matter for someone who commutes short distances daily and will maybe need to use gas for long range once a year?
It should be comparable in efficiency to Honda’s hybrids, which operate on a similar principle where the gas motor mostly just acts as a generator. They’re more efficient than a pure gas vehicle, but are the least efficient hybrids on the market by a pretty wide margin
Meanwhile in actual “EV charging at 70mph” news, overhead electric charging for trucks.
Starting at $50k…
