Re: Hybrid project

[Lee Hart <leeahart@earthlink.net>]

Ken Trough wrote:
> Are there any decent conversions being done that incorporate a small
> efficient fuel motor to recharge the onboard batteries? I am actually
> considering doing this to a 1979 corvette...

A *lot* of hybrid vehicles have been built over the years, and a
reasonable amount of detail has been published on many of them. Other
respondents to your post have covered this nicely.

However, you should also recognize that virtually none of them have
turned out to be "good" solutions, i.e. they have cost, performance,
efficiency, reliability, or other problems that make them impractical.
Thus none of them has made it to market (yet).

It is "easy" to build a hybrid vehicle. Throw a cheap Briggs & Stratton
lawnmower engine and aircraft surplus generator into some EV. Or stick
an oversized starter motor and a few more batteries into an ordinary
ICE. But the resulting vehicle does not work very well. You have a
vehicle that combines not only the good points of EVs and ICEs, but also
their *bad* points; it is simultaneously complex, noisy, expensive,
generates air pollution, requires frequent maintenance, and expensive
battery replacements.

The *hard* part in building a good hybrid vehicle is to figure out
exactly what the "mission" is (what range, speeds, performance, cost,
reliability, etc.. Then, design a vehicle that is optimized to do it. It
might be that a pure EV is completely adequate (short range, huge
amounts of stop-and-go). Or that a pure ICE is the only sensible
solution (all high-speed long-range cruising).

A Corvette is an interesting platform. It has relatively low frontal
area, and a strong frame to carry the weight. But it's a heavy car and
there is very little room to put things. The low posted EPA gas mileage
hints that it is an inefficient chassis. Is there a reason you are
considering it?
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