| > Unfortunately it is a safety risk as you can't know its health. This is solved by having small batteries where fires can be contained and directed out of the vehicle and by using safer chemistries like LiFePo4. > I'd never want to travel 500km at 80km/h. That is nonsense. Just because you don't want to shouldn't mean you get to make everyone everywhere carry around 2-4x as much vehicle and battery as they need just to save 20% trip time. A status quo where a vehicle can travel at a relatively sane, safe (half the collision energy, and braking distance), and efficient speed without fragile ego'd babies going completely postal because they have to wait 30 seconds to overtake is one where people who don't travel often can live with a vehicle that costs a quarter as much, weighs half as much, produces 1/16th the road wear and uses half the energy. > Also, having 30kW engine in a car on a highway is a life threatening risk, since you cant easily escape dangerous situations (overtaking other vehicles and acceleration at higher speeds takes way too long) - and we're not even talking about so absolutely hip and unnecessary SUVs or a fully loaded car. You're not burning 200kW for the whole trip. You'd still have your electric motor and batteries, you only need the average power from your range extender. Or if the base range is 50km, your range extender only needs to provide 3/4 of the energy to give you 2-3 hours of time between charge breaks (which will be short) |