Electric car questions…?
I have been researching EV cars and conversions and am wondering about using a generator instead of batteries. I am not an enviro-nut concerned about making an emission free vehicle, just one that is cheap to drive. It seems to me that using a generator to power the motor, although it would use gas, would be way more efficient than a normal gas engine that is in a car, and would be lighter than batteries. Also, if it is a diesel generator I could run bio-diesel to cut back on emissions. Am I correct in this assumption?
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Tagged with: assumption • batteries • bio diesel • cars • conversions • diesel generator • emissions • free vehicle • gas engine
Filed under: Electric Car Conversion
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i have considered the same thing. it will take a good size generator to power an ev tho. say you have a 15hp motor in your conversion. you will need a 15hp generator minimum to power it and it must have a large enough surge rating to handle the start up currents. one hp equals 746 watts. all in all the idea is sound but a little more involved than it seems.
Yes.
I was working for werner trucking and they were installing APU generators on thier trucks and it uses 1/3 less than the truck does at idle. 1/3 of a half a gallon of fuel an hour. It runs the ac and heat. I hope this helps
the generator will run efficiently at one optimum load and speed cf diesel-electric locamotive.
The batteries are needed to meet the variable power demands, including regeneration, of road use.
the tZero http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero/ Long ranger is a towable generator to do just what you are asking for http://www.acpropulsion.com/videos/backtracker.mov
You would be losing efficiency each time you transferred energy. Let’s say a generator is 50% efficient (that is, half the energy contained in the fuel is transferred), then the electric motor is 50% efficient. Now you are already only getting 25% efficiency from the fuel. You lose efficiency because of various factors including friction and resistance. If you could get 100% efficiency, then you have just invented perpetual motion.