LilBob

Hybrids Lead the Way for Auto Transport Industry

On Oct 07 02:58 PM George Marchetti wrote:

See, evworld.com/news.cfm?n...#.

I like to sketch and doodle ideas. If I had more money right now I'd buy a Porsche 356 replica and pop my power plant in it. It would use four axle mounted pancake motors, a Kohler Aegis powerplant, Optima Red Top Batteries and several other innovations. The hardest part of the whole project will be figuring out how to get the control system to work. If I can build that "black box" the rest is a cake walk.

Hybrids Lead the Way for Auto Transport Industry

Wow, sorry about all the typos-I get excited when I'm thinking of new business concepts.

Hybrids Lead the Way for Auto Transport Industry

On Oct 07 11:24 AM George Marchetti wrote:
That type of powertrain is known as a "series hybrid
> electric" powertrain and would be extremely efficient

I really think it's because the auto companies have so much invested in their dealer networks, they're afraid of customers no longer needing service. That to me is an opportunity for a new car company to leap-frog the competition and create an enormous competitive advantage-create a line of small cars using series electric hybrid drivetrains, and instead of building a dealer/service network, auction the cars via a website and provide owners with a laptop with each car that has all the adaptors and diagnostic equipment you needed to maintain the vehicles. Then the company could sell that same equipment and software to repair shops the same way the major automakers do. It'll be interesting to see if we see a Kia/Hyundai spinoff or one of the new Chinese or Indian automakers pursuing this tack. The advantage is that you don't have to make a huge capital investment to provide maintenance your vehicles, you can focus on the business of building and selling cars.

Hybrids Lead the Way for Auto Transport Industry

> Sadly car companies don't want EV's to be either low cost, small
> or affordable because they are simple, need few aftermarket parts
> and cut sales of their larger offerings.

Spot on with that statemenet. I personally am not a fan of plug in hybrids due to their heavy battery load and would have preferred to see automakers opt for full time hybrid designs where a tiny (as in 24 hp v-twin tiny) gas engine runs at as close to a constant speed as possible while the vehicle is running and a minimal battery pack and capacitors are used. The weight and cost savings with such a design are substantial. Unfortunately, those designs are so simple that auto buyers would be able to learn how to service their own cars again and automakers would end up further jeopardizing already strained relationships with their dealer networks, so we get plug in hybrids that are so ridiculously convoluted they put Rube Goldberg to shame.

This is part of the reason we're in a massive recession, companies make their products intentionally costly and complex so consumers aren't able to self-service, and those companies are able to get away with this ridiculousness because there isn't any real competition in the marketplace.