EV trailer range extender

laughing at this is pointless. it's like laughing at me for driving a prius with a trailer. "i might was well have a truck"... the whole thing is.. it's up to whomever to pick what they want. if they prefer a leaf over a volt and would rather tack on a small trailer (according to yahoo forums it tows better than a prius)... then great.. they now have an extended option.

it's an option people. i didn't buy a genII new to save money... i purchased it because it's an investment into an idea... since that idea is rolling, i'll probably never buy a used prius again (it's financing fault and fund fault.. not toyotas)

so... if someone does 99% EV a year and only needs that generator to go see the in-laws for christmas.. so be it.. shrug...

the thing about an EV range extender trailer is... it may just outlast the EV... then you get to use it on your next EV... (i may be exaggerating)

 

People are free to buy this ridiculous trailer and we are free to ridicule them!

 

Re: Range-Extending trailers for EV's

...don't we have a very recent post on PC, California guy (pEEf ?) selling his EV-mod Prius for $25K because he bought a Leaf with range extender? I was wondering what he meant - now I see.

The FAQ from me is, diesel is quite bad for smog/NOx. Does this thing make any sense in CA?

 

I love it, I can see myself towing it with my Model S on my skiing trip to Austria (1000km one way).
Too bad my maximum speed will drop from unlimited (long live the German autobahn) to 80km/h (50mph)... That will essentially make the trip take 1.5 times the time it would normally take

Was going to post how much a Prius can tow? I have a motorcycle (actually the Prius come into the household because I cannot drive my motorcycle for a while due to illness...) with a hitch (still have to attach it though). So I may buy a streamlined trailer for it. They typically are ~50-100kg with 100kg loadcapability. Can a Prius tow 150-200kg?

 

The Prius is rated at zero for towing. In some countries that makes it against the law to tow anything with a Prius. In the US the rating is just a guideline, so many US owners tow small trailers.

Tom

 

This is the same article Evan references in the OP. And as I commented earlier, it is a CONCEPT. It does not exist. All the performance claims are BOGUS because they are nothing but CLAIMS. Since the trailer does not exist, there are no test results. Only hot air from the inventor.

If this is to be used regularly, get a Volt instead, or a hybrid or PHV. If it is to be used seldom, rent a car. At $15,000 you could buy an economy car that would get better mileage and pollute less. As a rental, you could rent an economy car instead.

While some folks will no doubt like this idea because they'd rather be able to drive their own car, it's more expensive, will burn more gas, and pollute more than using a car designed for the longer trips. Whether you rent or own.

And it doesn't exist.

 

A SCR(urea) system can control NOx while not affecting fuel consumption. It also tends to be more reliable than other options. This trailer definitely has room for it.

The Prius has a zero tow rating. So does the Leaf. However, small cars tend to be under rated in the US because of liability.

 

Maybe the guys at Monster Garage could adapt one of these to recharge PiP while driving:

Lightweight Low-Drag Ram Air Turbine: FOR UAV AND PROPELLER AIRCRAFT APPLICATIONS

It would sure spoil the drag coefficient, but it looks like it would work.

 

Re: Range-Extending trailers for EV's

They may have a case as a rental ... but buying something you may use 2 or 3 times a year (presuming 99.9% of your trips are within typical range) is just a waste of space, as well as the utility of the generator/inverter.

 

in regards to towing... if i have a rough idea of what a kg to a lb is... then it's something like 2.2 lbs per kg... 200kg = 440lbs? my trailer weighs more than that empty (600-700lbs or 250-300kg??). on the yahoo forums they talk about 2000lb loads (900kg?)

 

This comparison would be more appropriate if a trailer cost $15,000 instead of less than a thousand bucks.

 

it's a taboo thing... cars shouldn't tow trailers... ev's shouldn't have gas engine... etc.. etc.

sure the point was a little out there.. but.. eh.. that's life.

 

You'd use more energy pulling the generator through the air than it would produce. That's just physics. Way back in the day, someone posted a picture (photoshopped) of a Prius with a tower on the roof and a wind turbine.

Great picture. Bad physics. You can't make something out of nothing, and every system has losses.

The really depressing thing is that there are actually people walking around loose who have seriously suggested to me that a generator attached to the wheels of an EV could provide the electricity to keep it running forever. Re-gen braking works. Steady-state perpetual re-gen is stupid.

There's a guy named Bedini, who I think lives in Idaho not too far from here, who has a perpetual motion scam going. (Or maybe it's just one of his disciples who lives near here.) He uses a battery to run an electric motor, which runs a generator to charge another battery, meanwhile taking useful work from the motor. When the battery is depleted the system reverses itself. He claims it runs forever, even when the motor is running something at the same time. Some guy put an electric boat on the lake at Coeur D'Alene with this system. When I told him to his face that it was a scam, he got really angry. I don't know whether he was mad at being exposed, or if he was really f-ing stupid enough to believe he'd proved that the conservation of energy does not hold.

But putting a wind generator on an EV or PHV is no different.

On an airplane it may serve to power devices which for some reason you don't want to power from the engine. Some crop dusters use such a propeller-driven gadget to run the pump for the spray.

 

i tend to get only a little lower gas mileage in my prius while towing.

on the yahoo forums, the leaf owners who tow say mileage isn't effected. in fact, driving feel isn't really effected. (depends on how you drive, I assume)

It's a tiny diesel. diesel is a lot better than gasoline for generating electricity. it can and probably will pollute more. I'm not saying it's going to get the mpg numbers they posted, but it has to be better than a volt. (hehe)

 

That ram air turbine also only produces 590watts when at in excess of 80mph.

Audi's A1 plug in serial hybrid uses a 15kW alternator mated to a 254cc Wankel rotary. Together they take up a little less volume than a 10in cube. Even with the additional controller, exhaust, emissions equipment, and fuel tank, it can still be a compact package. Small enough not to need an actual trailer and all its drawbacks.

This actually exists, and a test fleet of A1s are on the roads now. From Audi's releases in gets about 40mpg. Which will drop with the heavier Leaf. The Long Ranger achieved 30 to 35mpg.

How Audi Hybrids Could Keep the Wankel Rotary Alive - Feature - Car and Driver

 

40 mpg is not great compared to my Prius's 50 mpg hwy. But as a competitor to the Volt it seems viable.

I thought the Wankel rotary engine was a flop when Mazda tried it. Why did it fail before, and why do they think it will do better now? A serial hybrid has advantages over an ICE-only car. Is that alone enough to justify the use of the rotary engine?

With 30 miles EV range and 155 miles total range, a road trip would require a fill-up every 100 miles or so after the first 130 or so miles (since you don't want to run the tank empty and risk having to hitchhike for gas). That seems a poor choice.

 

I'm not a Wanker engine fan, but they can be made to be reliable and compact. If it's there for occasonal use and allows a person to buy a nearly all electric car with a backup engine for occasional long trips, then it might make sense. If it's being used for regular long trips, then it's the wrong car for the job.

 

Propane powered range extender on Yahoo today, I am thinking may be one of our Prius chat members

How one inventor wants to boost EVs with a towable turbine | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

 

With 5 miles less EV range than the Volt, and a much smaller gas tank, I'm not sure what the advantage is. I don't trust VW's reliability any more than I trust GM's.

Twice as expensive as the other genset trailer, and propane is probably more difficult to store than gas. My opinion of towable range extenders remains as before.

As for his other invention: Those things that give you 240 v. from two 120-v. outlets are kind of iffy. I guess they work, but are problematic. I'd much rather have a proper 240-v. outlet installed. (As I did.)

 

exactly. There seems to be pureism against these inovative range extenders.

Nice, here is the capstone spec.
http://www.capstoneturbine.com/_docs/CAP1100_Drive Solution_Range Extender_LR.pdf

250 lbs for turbine and inverter but without fuel and tank. It is also carb certified for diesel and can run cng, lng, as well as the diesel and propane in this example.