| If your 4-motor idea really made sense, I think Tesla would have done that. They didn't: they use a single large motor (or two, for the P85D, front and rear), driving a single-speed gearbox, through a differential, to two standard CV axles. The Chevy Volt, too, uses a single motor. I'm not sure about the Bolt or the LEAF but I suspect they're the same. >I don't need a battery. Give me a supercapacitor that is just big enough to handle regenerative breaking from 80 MPH to a stop, followed by running the engine while waiting for a drawbridge or freight train. Then you're going to have lousy fuel economy. If this idea made sense, the Chevy Volt would have used it. They didn't. No one wants to buy an serial hybrid car that has crappy fuel economy. They can just buy a gasoline car for a lot less money. >It's not about fuel economy. It's about acceleration The Tesla P85D has this already, and without all the complexity you're proposing. >It's about getting all this when there is no place to charge an electric car. If you have a house with electricity, you have a place to charge your car. If you have an apartment with a parking space and no way to get power there for a charging station, then you're too poor for anyone to bother making a car like this for you. >They could be out at the wheel, affixed to the body, missing the top and bottom to allow the wheel to move around them -- the car effectively being a mag-lev inside centerless wheels. As an engineer, I have no idea what you're talking about here. |
Prior to the Prius, one could have said the same about hybrids. Prior to Tesla, once could have said the same about electric cars -- and at the time it was true, with nobody wanting what little was offered.
There are numerous city dwellers with plenty of money and no place to charge. Often they live in historical neighborhoods that are all the rage these days. There are also homeowners without garages, and with garages full of stuff like boats and model railroads and other cars.
Also, range anxiety is real. No, I don't want to drive along a route defined by Tesla's superchargers.
That third option for motors probably requires an animation to explain. Never mind; there are at least two other ways that work fine without the unsprung weight problem.