Robert McLeod is on the right track but; how will the politicians look at it, vote wise. All government programs are designed to attract the most votes not to reduce oil consumption and pollution. The American public must apply enough political and economical pressure to overcome the Oil and Big Three gas guzzler makers lobbies by refusing to buy the four-wheel monsters they produce and buy available Hybrids now and Plug-in Hybrids as soons as availble. Austin City is leading the way. Other groups, cities, states etc should be incited to follow.

With reference to the 4-way consortium above, A good motor/generator maker is missing. HONDA would be an excellent partner to supply the small, light weight, high performance 8 to 10 Kw motor/generator required to extend the range from 100 to 500 miles for the occassional long trips. Having a major car manufacturer on-board would give the group the credibility and access to essential engineering and know-how.

^ multiple groups working on a problem will often solve parts in different ways, and the end result can be a cheaper product. Hopefully this group comes up with some ideas that serve to lower the total cost of the conversion kit.

Looks like a good set of companies here although I agree with Harvey D: they could really use a major auto manufacturer onboard here. Toyota or Honda seem to be the obvious choices. I'm sure they are talking with Toyota/Honda and perhaps we'll hear a welcome announcement soon.

All-in-all, this is promising news for the future of plug-in HEVs. We need something more than an aftermarket modification kit for the Prius that costs, what, $10,000-12,000?! I want to see PHEVs for sale at my local car dealer!

It will probably be some time before an OEM is involved with the Consortium: the point is to create some of the supplier infrastructure to facilitate the entry into the market of automakers.

Here's what I posted to the CalCars-News Archive about the announcement:

This is a major development that we think will speed the commercialization of PHEVs.

We've had conversations with the initiators of this Consortium. Although it may not be fully evident from this press release, our understanding is that their intent is to create a non-exclusive partnership of component suppliers -- multiple vendors of systems for energy storage, propulsion (motors, engines, power and drive trains), control and management, and integration services -- working with multiple Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs, the car companies).

As CalCars continues with its technology development and advocacy projects, we expect to work together with the Consortium in many areas.

If the engine can't supply enough power to keep the car moving at highway speeds, the driving range is almost as badly limited as if it had no engine at all.  Further, it makes more sense to charge from the grid than to run a tiny engine while parked, and larger engines are typically more efficient than small ones when running at their optimal setting (smaller heat losses).

There's a point where it makes no sense to have an engine.

Actually, a nice aerodynamic Prius probably requires something less than, what, 20 hp to overcome wind resistance and maintain a steady state 60-65 mph? (If someone knows the actual numbers chime in, but it's getting the car UP to that speed that takes the power.) Let's say 40 hp are required to offset electrical generation losses and provide 20 hp worth of electricity. 40 hp from a little two-cylinder diesel would be no problem. (?) Obviously if you want to drive 90 mph for more than a few miles this might become an issue.

The advantage to the engine approach is that the car can be recharging at any parked location (assuming asphyxiation etc. threat doesn't exist, might require parking outside for example). But you won't have to worry about finding an available electrical outlet to park next to. Overnight, or parking inside, or if you otherwise have access to an outlet and the time, you can always still recharge from the grid. But you don't have to.

Bravo!

Now I'm curious to know what the fuel consumption would be for this kind of setup. Since the diesel isn't connected to the wheels it can always run at its most efficient speed. Let's see, I found a diesel consumption rate for a tractor of 0.048 gal/hr per PTO hp. That's probably not a bad estimate since PTO (power take off shaft) horsepower is measured while the tractor is sitting still. From your calcs above it looks like we could safely cut the diesel output in half, to 20 hp, and probably still comfortably serve the steady state load.

This works out to a consumption rate of 0.96 or say 1 gallon of diesel per hour, traveling at 60 mph, or 60 mpg. And this is using the Ford tractor, not an advanced diesel. :)

Again we're talking about a plug-in hybrid here, so assuming sufficient battery capacity, for most trips you wouldn't use any liquid fuel at all. Perhaps 5 gallons per month would do for most vehicles. I think this approach merits a further look.

(how irritating, my post of last night never got added.  trying again...)

Tom, you've got your figures wrong.  IIRC, a 10% grade is 1 foot of rise in 10 feet of travel, so a vehicle moving up a 10% grade at 60 MPH (88 ft/sec) would be climbing at 8.8 ft/sec.  8.8 ft/sec * 2000 lbs = 17,600 ft-lb/sec or 32 horsepower.

Shirley:  Assuming an all-up vehicle weight of 3200 lbs and a coefficient of rolling resistance of 0.005, the aforementioned Prius would require a power of 8760 watts to cruise at 60 MPH, or 11.7 horsepower.  If the Prius gets 60 MPG at this speed and gasoline is 6.167 lbm/gallon, its engine would be burning 0.53 lbm/hp-hr.  This is not particularly good for a diesel (I've seen a BSFC curve for a Cummins which hit 0.32 lbm/hp-hr at its best speed point), and diesel fuel is denser than gasoline so the figures would be higher on that account alone.

If you could get consumption down to 0.40 lbm/hp-hr with a diesel and diesel fuel is 7.67 lbm/gal, a diesel Prius could theoretically achieve 98 MPG.  That would be pretty freaking impressive....

Never trust memory when it's so simple to recalculate from the basic figures.  You make a lot fewer mistakes that way.

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