Tesla X?

[sussex2]

What happens five years down the line when the batteries pack up?

[akirk]

What happens five years down the line when the batteries pack up?

It is the equivalent of a car's engine blowing up every 5 years on schedule - but probably more expensive

I suspect that long term car sales might move to leased cars and then the cost will be built in

Alasdair

[IcedKiwi]

In California, the Air Resource Board says that to sell hybrids/electric vehicles the manufacturer has to provide a 10year, 150k warranty! Obviously they'll only be offering that warranty where the law dictates and can't help but feel that it's a bit of a loss leader

[waremark]

There has been a battery powered self launching glider on the market since 2004. I believe they claimed a battery life of 11 years, to maintain 80% of original capacity. Wikipedia tells me they claim a battery life of 20 years or 3,000 cycles. I have not heard of complaints about batteries needing premature replacement, which is not to say that it hasn't occurred. By the way, in this application, by comparison with the more common 2 stroke propulsion system for self launching gliders, the battery powered version is heavier, more expensive, and has an endurance equivalent to a petrol engine with only 5 litres of fuel on board, whereas typically (for lower take-off weight than the battery version) you would have a capacity of maybe 40 litres. On the other hand the battery version is quiet, clean, simple to operate, and providing they get the electronics right should be more reliable.

[TheInsanity1234]

I've always thought the best kind of hybrid would be a fully electric car which has a small, but very efficient petrol engine in it which is connected to a generator that generates some electricity to give some extra range when necessary.

ETA: Although, having said that, perhaps, the smaller the engine, the more difficult it is to maintain a high thermal efficiency, due to the surface area : volume ratio that's much smaller for bigger volumes...

Using that logic, a 4.0l I4 engine would be easier to gain higher thermal efficiency than a smaller one, but the bigger you make the cylinders, the heavier the pistons will be, so the more energy is wasted in having to move the piston...

[jont-]

I've always thought the best kind of hybrid would be a fully electric car which has a small, but very efficient petrol engine in it which is connected to a generator that generates some electricity to give some extra range when necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisker_Karma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_i3#Ra ... der_option
arguably the i3s is too small to be properly useful.

[IcedKiwi]

The concept Audi a1 REEV (range extended EV) had a little wankel, then there's the CX-75 which originally had a couple of mini gas turbines to power some high speed electric motors!

As jont mentioned some are just designed as a get you home type device and not designed to be used for long periods and aren't powerful enough to give you max performance if the battery's empty.

[StressedDave]

IIRC, and this is going back mumble something years to my final year at Imperial when I helped with the integration of a small gas-turbine and high-speed alternator into a city car, the killer problem was the amount of NOx coming out of the tailpipe. I think the guys at Williams stepped on that particular conceit quite quickly for the CX-75. Even a tiny gas turbine has a huge mass flow rate to convert into nitrous oxides.

When I last looked, there was a lot of research going on into the design of range extender ICEs, particularly on the construction side with monolithic block and cylinder heads. If anyone has seen the size of the Porsche LMP1 engine, you'll see where the technology is going.