Ram range extender

[vandy1981]

Maybe a convertible truck-drop the heavy battery and replace with an engine when you need the towing range?

That's going to be way too complicated for a mainstream vehicle.

I would be happy nema L14-30 inlet or J1772 inlet in the bed that would let you charge while driving. That way you could bring your own generator or even hook up an auxiliary battery bank in the bed or trailer. A 30 amp charger wouldn't give you much extra range though...

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[Maquis]

That way you could bring your own generator or even hook up an auxiliary battery bank in the bed or trailer. A 30 amp charger wouldn't give you much extra range though...

The things anti-EV memes are made of!

 

[sotek2345]

That's going to be way too complicated for a mainstream vehicle.

I would be happy nema L14-30 inlet or J1772 inlet in the bed that would let you charge while driving. That way you could bring your own generator or even hook up an auxiliary battery bank in the bed or trailer. A 30 amp charger wouldn't give you much extra range though...

Yeah, 30A is only ~6.5kW after accounting for conversion losses. Unloaded and getting ~2mi/kWh, you would only gain ~45 miles on a 3.5 hour drive. Towing and getting ~1mi/kWh and you are talking about gaining ~15 miles between charges. Not really worth it.

I think you really need to be able to charge and sustain the drive. If you are getting 1mi/kWh while towing at 70mph, that is easy math - you need 70kW of input after losses (closer to 80kW before). that is ~110 HP sustained. Maybe drop down to ~50kW input (~80hp) if you are willing to lose range over time.

 

[vandy1981]

I think you really need to be able to charge and sustain the drive. If you are getting 1mi/kWh while towing at 70mph, that is easy math - you need 70kW of input after losses (closer to 80kW before). that is ~110 HP sustained. Maybe drop down to ~50kW input (~80hp) if you are willing to lose range over time.

I guess Stellantis could use the engine from a Fiat 500, then?

 

[sotek2345]

I guess Stellantis could use the engine from a Fiat 500, then?

If you want to run it at 100% all the time, I suspect it wouldn't last very long!

 

[Maquis]

If you want to run it at 100% all the time, I suspect it wouldn't last very long!

How long do they last in normal use?

 

[greenne]

Yeah, 30A is only ~6.5kW after accounting for conversion losses. Unloaded and getting ~2mi/kWh, you would only gain ~45 miles on a 3.5 hour drive. Towing and getting ~1mi/kWh and you are talking about gaining ~15 miles between charges. Not really worth it.

I think you really need to be able to charge and sustain the drive. If you are getting 1mi/kWh while towing at 70mph, that is easy math - you need 70kW of input after losses (closer to 80kW before). that is ~110 HP sustained. Maybe drop down to ~50kW input (~80hp) if you are willing to lose range over time.

That's close to how the Outlander PHEV operates where most of the time the battery drives the wheels--when the engine starts up it MOSTLY charges the battery. Only in rare cases is the engine directly driving the wheels (high speed highway cruising). The result is the Outlander *feels* like an EV almost all the time with a 1-drive transmission and EV like torque/power delivery. The key distinction being it can charge the battery faster than the EV motors depletes the battery. Here battery capacity never is the issue..only gas tank volume. The ICE motor by itself has something like 100-125hp which would not be adequate to drive the vehicle by itself if the system allowed the battery to completely deplete.
(Its operates closer to a diesel electric locomotive concept)

How Mitsubishi’s PHEV Works | Green Car Journal

Note: This is from the older model, I *think* with the redesign they increased the EV only and series only operations and now it only reverts to parallel mode at very high speeds or fast acceleration. The Electric motors in the redesign are much bigger and EV only range increased.

The kia/Hyundai PHEVs are different, whereas it behaves like a regular hybrid with a large battery. It starts out in Electric only mode(or heavily biased) and then switches to ICE hybrid vehicle when the battery is depleted. Toyota is the same way(sans the electric rear drive).

 

[luebri]

I think of it this way.

Ford is able to upsell the SR > ER battery jump at ~$10k for a reported and essentially theoretical perfect 80 miles of additional range / 32kwh. (131 ER - 98 SR = 32kwh)

If a range extender (e.g. Generator) could simply extend range and not touch the drivetrain in any manner could they add 80 miles of range / 32kwh during 3 hours of driving (time to deplete ~250 to 300kw of battery) for something substantively less than $10k?

To do so they would need at minimum of engine capable of producing 12kwh and be able to do it for well under $10k. Seems doable to me.

I would think something modular that sits on the top of the bed like the Ford range extender patents could be compelling to some buyers.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34277725/ford-f-150-range-extender-ev-pickup-patent/

 

[shutterbug]

Building a truck with both a large/heavy battery and electric motors AND even a moderate-sized internal combustion engine is kind of the worst of both worlds in terms of weight capacity and payload space consumed.

Also, two things to go bad instead of one

 

[LightningShow]

Ding, Ding, Ding!

Building a truck with both a large/heavy battery and electric motors AND even a moderate-sized internal combustion engine is kind of the worst of both worlds in terms of weight capacity and payload space consumed.

Maybe a convertible truck-drop the heavy battery and replace with an engine when you need the towing range?

It's all dependent on what they deliver. If you can get 200 miles of battery range and 200 miles from the extender at the same price point as the full BEV trucks getting 300 miles then it's going to appeal to a lot of people. Modern ICE engines aren't really that heavy, especially considering the range extender would be smallish engine, it would likely weigh less than the ~50kWh of battery capacity that they would likely be removing. I'd expect weight parity, more or less, after considering the ancillary parts needed for the extender.

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