Electric Hybrid Car on Top Gear

[stoofur]

Did anyone see the "Hybrid" electric car on Top Gear on Sunday 19th Feb.

The car ran on an electric motor and only used the petrol engine to charge the battery when it got low. The engine did not power the wheels. Is this the answer for now with electric cars? It sounded quite interesting to me.

What are your thoughts?

[Toureman]

It's not an electric car, it's a hybrid!

[d9f1c7]

Not a complete answer it's still a petrol vehicle. It is better than a standard vehicle though because it can be charged at home and the petrol engine effectively acts as insurance should the batteries need charging when not at a charging point. It's still 500% worse to use electricity that has been generated by fossil fuels rather than the fossil fuels themselves but ignoring the environmental aspects, home charging is very cheap compared with petrol/deisel so this will save money for the long suffering motorist.

[Old_Geezer]

Didn't see it, rarely watch Top Gear. But I do find it surprising that electrtic cars are being pushed :-) as an answer to future vehicle fuel problems. We already have problems with power generation, some wanting to deny the need for nuclear generation, many debating over how effective/useful alternative power such as solar, wind, wave, etc is. And someone wants to add the vast drain of vehicle powering to the demand ? Seems a weird path to go down.

[stoofur]

Toureman, I am pretty sure I used the word Hybrid twice in my question. The reason I put "Hybrid" in inverted commas is that usually people think of the Prius type of car as a Hybrid. This is a bit different to that.

I appreciate D9 and Old Geezers responses about the dirty electricity generation. I assume that hydrogen fuel cells maybe the answer? But that is probably a long way off and there is no infrasructure at the moment. I understood from the little James May was allowed to say on the subject that this style of "Hybrid" is a more efficient way of getting the energy out of petrol.

One of the complained problems with electric cars of today is the range and this goes some way towards fixing the problem.

Maybe we can have little windmills attached to the top of the car to also generate power when we are moving :-)

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Was the overall m.p.g. and c.o. output any different from a diesel?

[Old_Geezer]

Based on what you have told us, I can't help wondering that, if the petrol engine is simply acting as an emergency electricity generator for the car, then what the advantage is in performing that fuel conversion before using it, rather than driving the car with the petrol directly. I guess there may be savings on having just the one motor, but even so.

[d9f1c7]

That could be infinite Bright spark, if you never need the engine.

[FredPuli43]

Would not a diesel-electric car be better? Then you'd have quite a small diesel engine powering the generation for an electric motor, which drives the wheels.( In fact, I thought that was what James May was on about, but with a petrol engine instead of a diesel LOL) There must have been some good reason for the use of these power plants on railway engines, rather than simple diesel, but it may not have been a reason which is valid for cars.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

So d9...do we leave it on the drive?

[d9f1c7]

Keep up bright(?) spark, read about it. The car is essentially electric, you plug it in and charge just like a g-wizz the difference is that it has an engine that can charge the batteries, it does not drive the wheels it is there to deal with the main issue of electric cars ie, range and convenience. So if you always charge it at home, go to work and come home inside it's range the engine will not be needed. see?

[BRIGHT SPARK]

So d9.....I must have been missing the point at all the climate change meetings...the leccy to recharge the cells comes from thin air with no co2 fallout..........you should be an MP with reasoning like yours!

[Paul_M]

In my opinion, wind farms, wave generators and other GREEN solutions for energy production are ineffective simply hiking up everyone's energy bill by 15% to meet the carbon emissions quota. These technologies are only of any use to the people selling it and governments taking more tax. As for electric cars, the cost and weight of the battery needs to be drastically reduced and also the materiel's and manufacturing methods involved. Batteries are not the answer, do you remember when Top Gear and the Prius?