it is a technology which may well have missed the boat but Nissan is expanding production of its serial hybrid power trains into many more cars and selling them in Europe, previously the technology was only in a few cars sold in the far east and asia.
These are mild hybrids, in that all the energy comes from petrol, but they have advantages over current designs, in that they are basically an electric drive train with the electricity produced more or less on demand from a petrol engine powered generator, with just a small lithium ion battery in the middle.
The overall design is simpler in that there is no gearbox, maximum torque at zero revs, and the petrol engine only needs to be powerful enough to meet average sustained power demand, with peak power topped up from the small battery in the middle. It also allows for the petrol engine be placed in any convenient space in the vehicle, as there is no mechanical link to the wheels. Regnerative braking also helps
These are not currently plug in hybrids, but there is no reason for them not to be beyond battery cost and yet more weight in the vehicle. They should be more efficient and more reliable than current mild hybrids because of reduced mechanical complexity.
However, they are still have all the emissions and most of the complexity of standard cars so savings in running costs will be minimal.
It will be interesting to see if the technology spreads before being killed by pure electric cars becoming universal
Serial hybrid cars finally becoming mainstream
Moderator: Peak Moderation
Re: Serial hybrid cars finally becoming mainstream
I don't think it will be killed that way, because large areas of the world don't have the infrastructure to support pure electric vehicles.PS_RalphW wrote:It will be interesting to see if the technology spreads before being killed by pure electric cars becoming universal