Building our Hybrid

How much power do we need for our Hybrid design?

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This is a constantly evolving question, but at it’s basis is the underlying question, “to do what”.  As an example, if you take a 3,000 lb hybrid car design and want to go 65MPH, getting up to speed will take considerably more energy than staying at 65MPH.  So in our design is this simply concept, batteries are for enhanced acceleration, but the steady state system needs to operate within the generator’s power capacity.  This minimizes the size and weight of the generator and batteries.  Also, when the vehicle is running below the maximum capacity of the generator, it can charge the batteries.

So, while we may need 150 amps at 84 volts (12.6K watts) to come up to speed, we may only need 40amps at 84 volts (3.7K watts) to cruise along at 65MPH.  The great news is we are only accelerating for short periods of time.  The battery and generator capacity have to be able to handle the accelerating together, while just the generator will be needed while cruising.

So a 8K to 10K watts generator running at 50% capacity can output about 40 amps at 120VAC  (4.8K watts), while sipping a low 1 gallon of gas per hour.

The battery string used needs to be able to also provide at approximately 220 amp hours at 84V (7 – 12VDC cells).

Cars, Technology

What’s wrong with the current crop of Hybrid Vehicles?

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The biggest issue facing Hybrid cars and trucks (I wish), is their MPG.  As we already stated in one of our previous posts, Hybrids should be able to reach at least 65MPG, but they don’t, so why not.

  • The paradigm of the gas powered vehicle is strong.  We have a lot of years of decisions on vehicle design that must be overcome.  Things like how they look are easy to see, but how they are built, designed, serviceability and design tradeoffs run much deeper.
  • But we have to be able to go 120MPH, right? NO, that’s just another design choice.  What if it could only reach 75MPH, or 90MPH?  That should work for most emergency needs, but it can have a radical effect on some design choices.

So we’ve covered a couple here, what else do you think plays into the wrong and right designs for Hybrid EVs?

News and Views, Technology

What’s wrong with most EVs?

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Simply put, range! This one has 60 miles, another 80, the new Nissan Leaf has 100 miles.  I, like many I know, drive ~22 miles to the office and then up to another 140 miles out to customer locations and back, then another 22 miles home.

I believe we need at least a 200 mile range on an all electric car, so for now a hybrid design is the clear winner.

Cars

Same Car – Vastly Different Mileage

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The new 2012 Ford Focus is one versatile car, here in the U.S. it gets between 33-40MPG, depending on who you ask, but in Europe it can get 55MPG or 67MPG.  The diesel is slated to get 80mpg.

So why can’t you get these cars here in the U.S.?  Do the physics change coming across the Atlantic?  Why are we going to get ripped off by 50% of the mileage we should be getting?

Time to do one of two things, or both:

  1. Complain to your Congressional/Senatorial representative.
  2. Build your own solution with us.
News and Views

Welcome to Make it a Hybrid!

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This is a new site that has been started as a result of being sick and tired of the games the oil companies and auto manufacturers have been playing.

EXAMPLE FACTS:

Back in 1983, you could by a Honda CRX that got 49MPG, but today in 2011 you can buy the Honda CRZ hybrid that gets 39MPG. Where did the 10MPG go?

Ford had the Fiesta, Dodge had the Colt, Datsun (Nissan) had the B210 … etc … the list of cars that touched 45-50MPG was long and cheap in the early 1980s … See http://www.mpgomatic.com/2007/10/18/super-cheap-high-mpg-cars-1983/ for more. This begs the question “So, why do you have to spend $35,000+ to get a high MPG car now?”

In 1983 you buy gas for about $1.55/gal and recently the price went to $4.00/gal. You can check http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html for a graph of the data.

BP just reported 7.1BILLION in profits in April, and that’s just for the quarter! … For More See http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bp-profits-up-17percent-in-first-quarter-despite-spill-damage/2011/04/27/AFqKnLzE_story.html

OUR MISSION:

Prove to you that Anyone can take some standard vehicle(s) and with mostly Commercially available Off the Shelf (COTS) parts, build a EV/Hybrid that gets 65MPG or more and costs less than $20,000 to build.  We are going to document the entire process and deliver the knowledge to anyone desiring to do it themselves.