Thread: Chevrolet Volt
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Old 07-11-2008, 02:54 PM   #150
Nickdago
 
Drives: 01 Z06 08 CTS 07 Avy LTZ
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Golden, CO
Posts: 404
Quote:
Originally Posted by theholycow View Post
Nickdago: Batteries are what make the car efficient. It gets to run the gas engine at its most efficient speed/load, store that energy, then use it when necessary; and it gets to recover wasted energy through regenerative braking.

If you just hooked the gas engine generator to the electric motor with no batteries, it would be far less efficient than hooking the gas engine directly to the transmission. There's a lot of waste introduced when you make rotational energy, convert it to electricity, then just convert it back to rotational energy again.
Right, but if they could take all this knowledge and technology and build a better Prius type product at the same time that would really put them ahead of the game, Toyota to be specific. I mean nothing wrong with building a better mousetrap. It would be like the Camaro competing against the Mustang.

Last edited by Nickdago; 07-11-2008 at 03:21 PM.
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