640 HP hybrid

[jackbombay]

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/the_hybrid_mini.php

[RAMMSTEIN]

This system of wheel-engine was developped here, by Hydro-Québec.

First car was an Intrepid.

When the traction control was off, it could smoke all 4 tires.

I've seen this car up close, looks like any other car from the outside.

I hope it won't be bought by the oil companies and put into a warehouse far from everything... :roll:

If you go to the movies, try to go see "Who killed the electric car", you'll see that oil and automotive companies are against such cars. :wink:

[jackbombay]

I hope it won't be bought by the oil companies and put into a warehouse far from everything... :roll:

  Cue closing scene of "raiders of the lost arc".

[MaxHedrm]

With all that additional unsprung weight it probably handles like crap.

[RabbitJockey]

this here is actually quite interesting, and has a real future assuming the money hogs don't crash into it wthere big wrecking ball made of their millions.  it probably does handle like  chopper bike, but something thats putting 640 hp most likely to the ground, and getting well into 80mpg is nothing gawk at, and definetly raise my eyebrow.  with less powerful motors i would imagine even more increased mileage,  and it actually has a chance at fitting any cars form factor or needs.  not to mention the advantages something like this could have on offroad vehicles as they could be more free with there suspension since no drive shafts are needed, and even more ground clearance could be had.  plus the adaptablility as they mentioned, this could possibly lead to kits to conver any car...  or with fabrications skills i suppose this could be done regardless, although it's quite obvious that it's not any kind of a bolt on...  but this is very very very extremely um exciting?  i'd give up my turbo diesel for 4 electric motors and little gas engined generator and a battery...  and catch you all later as i float through a parking lot with all 4 tires spinning haha, and it'd be pimp too since there would be shifter, that'd be weird to drive.  oh my and i wonder if you could go switching like just the rear wheels drive or just the front wheels drive, then go swinging the ass end around haha

[burn_your_money]

Why not a turbo diesel generator Trevor?  :lol:

[jackbombay]

float through a parking lot with all 4 tires spinning

  4wd burnouts will always hold a special place in my heart, not that I've ever seen one or been in a car doing one, but the principle alone makes my heart pitter patter

[RabbitJockey]

Why not a turbo diesel generator Trevor?  :lol:

anyways, that mileage would probably go up dramatically with a little one cylinder turbo diesel in there, effing morons and there stupid over complicated gas engines...

[LeeG]

All that technology and you need blocks of wood under the wheels for a parking brake!  I guess with no mechanical brake they dont have a way to secure the wheels except by energizing them?  They'll need to figure out something to make a marketable product.

With 100% regenerative braking I bet you wont see much smaller capacity motors than these, they probably need all of it to deliver acceptable braking performance.  My brakes can 60-0 a lot faster than the TD can 0-60.


With 640 HP the top speed of 150 must be artificial.  Wait untill they go production and someone comes out with a pure performance 'chip' for it!

[lord_verminaard]

That top speed is probably due to gearing.  I'm betting there isnt any sort of transmission on that thing, unlike the Tesla Roadster which has a 2-speed manual transmission.    And that regenerative braking kind of scares me.  I know on my R.C. car which essentially "brakes" the same way, if the batteries are low, it does not brake well at all.  Novel idea and all, props for doing it.  But I agree, why use a gasser for energy recovery when a small diesel "generator" would work much better.

Brendan
84 Scirocco 8v
00 Camaro L36 M49

[burn_your_money]

not to mention hybrids with solar panels can get over 100MPG. Not 640WHP though

[jackbombay]

but once the batteries are discharged a bit it say it can maintain highway speeds of 60-70 MPH... :roll: Not all that impressive...

Andrew

   I doubt it would ever have troubles maintaining 70 MPH, maintaining 100 MPH? Maybe, but it has a generator so the batteries will never get run down significantly, although at 100 MPH the generator might not be able to keep up.

[QuickTD]

Every time I see one of these "new" designs it irritates me. The only thing new is the packaging. The CNC machine tool control industry has been using motors and drives with this kind of energy density for 20 years. All electric motors are basically thermally limited, they can put out many times their nominal power for brief periods, no magic there. The multipole brushless AC permanent magnet motors in this car are no different in technology than a standard fanuc "red head" motor. The servo drives used in machine tools have used regenerative braking since their inception in the 50's and the electronic drives for these motors have been 90+% efficient since the mid 70's

 So given that the technology has existed for 20 years what's the holdup? Money. Nobody can sucessfully construct a multipole PM AC motor and a suitable drive and battery pack for a reasonable amount of money, even the chinese have been unable to do it. Mass production won't change that, it hasn't in the machine tool industry and it won't in the auto industry. The processes are already fully automated. The parts are complicated and numerous, the materials are rare and expensive and the processes to manufacture them have a very high scrap rate, especially the batteries.

 We've reached a plateau with regard to electronics technology, there has been nothing significantly new in the last 10 years and no one has been able to refine or reduce the cost of the current manufacturing processes. I don't see a practical, cheap electric car for at least another 20 years. You can be sure that there will be lots of $100000-200000 ones though...

[jtanguay]

I'm more fond of the diesel/hydraulic drive system.   No batteries, but still AWD performance!  No drive shafts, and no transmission (except maybe to gear hydraulic pump to output more pressure at higher speeds)

I have to agree with QuickTD.   I saw a car the chinese developped that could go 0-60 in about 3 seconds.   It had 4 tires in the back, and 2 in the front.  It was filled with lithium batteries, took an hour to charge, and could go approx 300km I think they said.   It was also around $300'000  :shock:

Same regenerative braking bs...  Although I do like the technology.  That car will have better AWD performance than any gasoline shaft driven vehicle.  

Pretty much same concept, going back all the way to WW1 with the french electric tank.  Definitely not as advanced as today's electric hybrids, but goes to show some ingenuity in being able to reverse the tracks to spin the tank if needed.   Too bad transmissions were made though! :lol:

So back to hydraulic drive.  You basically have hoses going to each wheel, and a small hydraulic drive motor rests inside the wheel.  This type of setup would be ideal for 4 wheelin'.   Just need to protect the hoses.  Braking wouldn't be regenerative, but would still work by reversing the flow for the motor.   Yes there are a few drawbacks to this type of setup...  What if my car shuts off randomly and I'm doing 120 and the guy in front of me jams on the brakes...  There will be a crude ejection system for the driver in this case... j/k  :lol:

This system could probably achieve 80mpg as well.   The motor would only need to increase its power output when hard accelerating.  Oh and it has to be diesel... Why you ask?  low rpm torque!!!

[Kudagra]

They could do that. And you could use a parking brake like most hyd motors. Spring applied and pressure released. When you step on the brakes it could slowly reduce the pressure to the brakes allowing the springs to apply the brakes on the motor. But I see a weight problem.

Then when its not running the Brakes would lock. Instant parking brake and it would be a pain to tow away (for those that dont pay their car payments)

Now on a loss of engine power I would say a small electric drivin pump or accumulator to keep pressure on the system till you can turn the key off.