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The engine is a turbocharged, 1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels. The ICE runs at about 1800 rpm and drives a 53 kW generator that charges the lithium ion battery pack. The engine starts and stops automatically as needed to charge the battery.
The Volt has a range of about 40 miles on the battery alone which might not seem like much. But, considering that most people drive fewer miles than that per day, it should mean that a lot of drivers will never use a drop of gas on their daily commute. However, when the fuel tank is filled to it's capacity of 12 US gallons of gas, the Volt has a range of 640 miles. In addition, the Volt ICE is fully flex fuel capable and can run on any combination of gasoline or ethanol up to E85. The power-train is sized to achieve 0-60 mph acceleration of about 8.5 seconds.
1.0L three cylinder engine with 71 hp that has no mechanical connection to the wheels
Originally posted by sardion2000
Modded Plug-in Prius' have been reported to get upwards to 80 mpg and some even claimed over a 100 mpg.
You take a production hybrid and double the battery capacity and add some circuitry to recharge it at night. You don't really save any money on gas, because you have to pay for the electricity, but because you recharge it with power from the grid, the CO2 emissions are much less.
The problem though is the batteries are also very unfriendly to the environment, and will need replaced every five years or so.
I am a firm believer in fuel cells, but there are still too many hurdles to get around. The main problem is building the infrastructure for a hydrogen economy. Another is safety of storing the hydrogen in the car, but some progress is being made. There are plans to build a prototype hydrogen station in Akron Ohio, which is fairly close, but I don’t know if it will ever be built.
Originally posted by sardion2000
Electricity is much cheaper than gas and is a very flexible distribution medium. Much more flexible and cheaper then Hydrogen stations.
Silver-Zinc batteries show up Lithium-Ion/Composite batteries
Yes currently it is more practical, but the end goal is to eliminate CO2 emissions. Electric power plants still put out CO2 even though it is less than cars.
I can't recall the inventors name, but it is something like Slovinsky who has designed a hydrogen station that runs on solar cells, so even though generating and distributing hydrogen is not as efficient as electricity it does not matter because the energy used is free and clean.
“In the market place, hydrogen would have to compete with its own source of energy, i.e. with ("green") electricity from the grid,” he says. “For this reason, creating a new energy carrier is a no-win solution. We have to solve an energy problem not an energy carrier problem."
Originally posted by sardion2000
Why not cut out the hydrogen? It's an energy leech, not a power source. No matter how efficient you try to make hydrogen, you'll always be able to make a pure EV 2 steps more efficient.
BTW, I got the above Graphic from the cached(the site is down atm) article below(the original link is below it)
Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense
Where does electricity come from?
Hal9000
The big advantage with hydrogen is the range. With plug in hybrids the range is around 40 miles then you are back to burning gasoline or a flex fuel.