generator to power electric vehicle?

[trollbait]

Originally Posted by JoeBob

The reason I mentioned the Owen was the description in the original post. Rakkassan34 mentions the truck using a generator INSTEAD of batteries.

Ok, thought it was a reply to me.

The series hybrid, sans battery, has been around for awhile. In locomotives it's simpler, more reliable, and likely has more low end torque than a tradition transmission and drive train. You get that, plus the benefit of placing the motor in the best spot for weight distribution in a ship or monster size equipment, like a crane.

They just have the same limitation as a regular, singled engine car. The system has to be sized for max required output. Which means at the most common required output, it isn't at its optimum efficiency range.

Add a battery, and you can put in a generator sized for that most common output, say regular cruise speed. At that speed goes directly to the drive motors. Slower, excess power charges the battery. Full battery, the system goes EV. Faster and you pull power from the battery.

[JanGeo]

One of the reasons that Diesel Electric drive is used in Locomotives is that the electric drive is basically used as a variable transmission. A series motor connected to the wheels is powered by the generator output spun by the Diesel engine with the power output being regulated by the amount of excitation of the field winding in the generator which is relatively easier to control than the 4000+ HP output of the engine if it was mechanically connected to the wheels. No gear changing is needed to get a wide range of speed since the field winding can make the generator produce a wide range of output voltage.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Originally Posted by theholycow

If you've got batteries and regen, I'd say the smaller generator has a better chance of keeping up if you ARE doing a lot of stop and go. Steady-state driving at highway speeds takes 20-30hp, so if your generator is 100% efficient (it's not; it's nowhere near that) then you'd need at least a 20-30hp generator.

I guess I was tired when I wrote that and not very clear...what you said is what I was trying to say.