I think this Poulsen Hybrid idea is sweet... check it out. Orange Hues: Our Inefficient Cars & The Poulsen Hybrid Solution Home My only question is what triggers the motor controllers to turn the motors on? Is it motion or is the system tied into the accelerator of the car somehow?
Hard to believe that the hub motors could provide useful torque when their mounting arms are only screwed onto the fender. And yeah, how can the control system possibly be arranged?
Hi Richard..., This page Poulsen Hybrid says the motors are 7 hp at 60 mph. So, the intent of this system is to provide highway cruise power only, I guess. So, that is not allot of torque.
Hi Again, Reading along, on another page, it says that the effect of turning the system on is the car is freewheeling along. So, apparently, I guess, you get up to 60 mph, then flip the switch, and the system maintains the same wheel RPM as long as its on, and not out of juice.
Not impressed. Production hybrids are effective because they have complimentary gas and electric components (i.e. the small but efficient gas engine is combined with a properly sized electric motor which makes for an efficient but adequately powerful drivetrain) with integrated control systems. The whole thing is optimized as a system to deliver the goods. Yes, this add-on system would get you the benefit of some electrons to offset some gasoline. But the list of things you don't get is as long as my arm. I think this is one of those good ideas that isn't likely to execute all that well in the real world.
I had actually been thinking of something along these lines. Seems like there will potentially be a huge market for an affordable hybrid conversion kit. As brick implied, its tought to make a good hybrid. On the other hand, its not really that tough to make a decent plug-in hybrid. Its basically just the same idea all the EV conversion folks are doing, except you leave the gas engine in and have less battery. Ideally you would have some fancy controller like the Prius' to work out power sharing, but I would think that would run contrary to the desire for the system to be cheap. I was actually thinking of an arrangement where you would have a hand control (joystick or something) for electric drive/regen, and maintain all the traditional controls for the gas drive. Come to think of it, I think thats kind of like what the MIMA Insight guys do. I was thinking more from the angle of installing these in a specific vehicle for resale, rather than a universal kit but that sounds pretty cool too. To make it look clean and fairly straight forward, I was thinking of a vehicle that was available both in a fwd and awd config. I'd buy a used fwd, swap the rear end in from an awd model, and then drive the rear wheels with the electric. Brushless hub motors would be nice, but I was thinking more like 5-6" DCs (may a pair) to keep cost of motors and controllers down. I was thinking a PHEV RAV4 would be kind of cool Rob
It's an idea, and I would like to see it being used, although it makes me wonder if it is just a way to keep present industries in business longer by keeping old technology around.
