Discussion on Electric Cars and ICE Assist

I would like to share this email thread that I started with Bob Flora.  I hope some of you will add to the discussion.

Dear Bob,

Now that full electric vehicles are a growing reality, I would like to return to our discussions from some years ago about the optimal hybrid.  The engineering approach of the current hybrids are to augment a ICE with electric.  I would like to investigate augmenting electric with an ICE.  Please post your thoughts on the club blog.

Dear Brian,

I don't know how to post, nor what you want posted, but here are my random thoughts, feel free to post as you wish;

First, we're not talking about the dozens of IC fossil fuel cars that happen to have a token electric stater motor on steroids used to simply increase the fossil efficiency by some percentage.  (Prius, Insight, Ford Fusion, the list goes on....   Don't get me wrong, these are nice fossil cars, but they're not electric cars!)

I've been accumulating data on electric cars as I learn about them.   The enclosed very informal spread sheet is neither exhaustive nor necessarily accurate, but comes simply from what I have read:

25 electric cars are listed and the first 6 have some form of on-road recharging capability from fossil fuel.   I will give my take on each one in order as listed:

BYD is very serious about the F6 DM and has the money, government and private backing, battery technology, and capability to produce it cheaply, but we really don't have any specs yet.

The Volvo Recharge is very unique (except for the Lightning) in that it uses 4 very high tech (Hi-Pa) in wheel motors from PML.

The Aptera 2h uses only a 9 KW fossil fuel engine...   fantastic body...  0.05 drag!!

The Volt really looks good, but is a little heavy on the fossil fuel with 53 KW and a little weak on performance.   (But I wouldn't dare to actually get inside a Volt...  GM might crush it at any moment!)

The Karma (I sat in one in Geneva...   it's nice but cramped.) really isn't a full electric.   Yes, it's driven solely by 2x150 KW electric motors, but the battery can't deliver the full power without assistance from the 194 KW fossil engine.

The (Swiss) MindSet is the ultimate extreme of a totally electric car with a token fossil engine for on-road recharge.   The one cylinder engine is very small and can be lifted out of the car and left in the garage for typical local use.   You only need to put it in the car for long trips.

BUT, I plan to take this ultimate concept on step further with my Tesla S.   I will also leave the fossil engine in the garage like the MindSet, but I will actually mount it in a second car (the STI) and allow the second car to take the fossil engine on long trips for me.   A sort of hybrid-garage, if you will!

Shalom, Bob

PS Yes, I know all the main stream companies (Chrysler, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen) are planning something "in the future" like the Volt, but we really don't have any hard facts yet and their track record has been so poor in the past (though not as bad as GM).

Club Project Management

Project organization for loosely coupled organizations is always a challenge, so it is worth some thought on how best to manage projects within the club. Presently I am most attracted to the successful DARPA model. (check out their site) Their ideas distilled down to the scale of our club look like this. Project management and organization is structured around the project manager. To become a project manager, you propose a project to the club leadership or to the club as a whole. If there is enough interest and the project is deemed feasible, the club approves the project. Then the project manager is turned loose to recruit his or her team. Resources are raise by the team or are made available from club sources. Project progress is reported to the club and this team stays together for the duration of the project This approach provides ownership and responsibility and does not create a whole lot of bureaucracy. Please comment on this structure or better yet suggest a project that you would like to lead. Projects may be anything from research,to analysis, to home or lab projects.

Analysis of National Sustainable Energy Plans

Depending on your position on climate and energy issues, your views on the proper timetable and level for actions will vary widely.  We all see this play out on the national scale in our daily newspapers and magazines with energy issues lurking within seemingly unrelated stories.  In fact it is hard to imagine any national or international issue that is not connected in some way to energy policy.  By and large, US energy policy has been left to Adam Smiths invisible guiding hand of the all knowing market.  This is the same hand that gave us real-estate bubblenomics and Credit Default Swaps.  I don't want to get to political here, I just kinda gotta agree with Yogi Berra, "You gotta be careful if you don't know where you are going, otherwise you might not get there."

So where are we going?  I like bold plans, so I am attracted to "Repower America"

www.repoweramerica.org.  

What are your favorite plans?  Is Repower America a crazy idea?  Take a minute and share your thoughts.

FSEC Home Based Projects

Projects, Projects, Projects is one thing that came through on the FSEC survey.  While this is not everyones thing, there is a lot of interest in building cool things.  While the Lederman Science Center Sustainable Energy Exhibit is a big project for us, we probably can't all effectively converge on this one project at once.  Another strong area of interest is in home solar, wind, Ebike or other energy related projects.  One goal we might consider for this type of project is to optimize the designs for ease of construction and low cost and present it to the larger sustainable community  As Norm would say, "we provide measured drawings",  bills of material and complete directions and construction videos on our website for the other do it yourselfers out there.  There are a lot of DIY documents out there now of varying quality.  We could compete with the best.  Please start threads for project ideas.