Chrysler is Betting Big on EV / PHEV
Interestingly, they aren't going with traditional Prius-like hybrids - where a gas engine directly pushes the drivetrain. Rather, they are going full EV for sports cars and Volt-like range-extension for everything else (where the electric engine always pushes the drive train and a small gas engine charges the batteries when necessary).
Chrysler plans on bringing these vehicles to market in two years.
More at Wired.
Comments
I may just be another tech-savvy-ish liberal arts major (history of the mid east/ international economics) but series hybrids make way more sense.
First- assume the primary drive is electric. The charging source can be anything that can store and or produce electricity: gas driven generator, diesel driven, battery, ultracap, soalr panel, microwave inductor warp coil- whatever.
It makes for ashort bridge to new electrical generation- the electric already charges the ev motor. Later when onboard storage is better- for shorter trips, no electrical generation.
Posted by: MDarling | September 28, 2008 07:38 PM