Idea for Hybrid pickup

[JKLines]

Whenever I see an article on an electric pickup, it seems the negative issues primarily revolve around range and recharge time. It does seem there are a number of advantages with electric with torque and acceleration usually at the top of the list. So the thing that I always wonder about is why doesn't someone create a hybrid that functions more like a locomotive ... i.e. a diesel (Cummins) driving an efficient generator that then drives electric drive motors? I think the biggest problem might be that the engine noise would not be necessarily be in sync with activities like accelerating that might be disconcerting. I'm interested in what others think.

 

[Jessica Smith]

Turbo diesels cost quite a bit more than naturally aspirated gasoline engines to begin with, then you're also adding in the cost of a robust electrical system and battery for the motors, and it can be quite expensive.

Using gasoline generators with an electric drive system has been done though which is what the Chevy Volt was from what I recall (which as a plugin could also run into the issue of needing a special gas tank so fuel wouldn't go stale that might sit in the vehicle for 6 months+).

Theres also the issue of the old thermodynamics law that says "you can't even break even", so its going to be more efficient to have the gasoline engine drive the wheels than have its rotational power converted into electrical power to store in the battery to convert back to rotational power.

So the appeal of all electric is that its a simpler lighter system, and likely cheaper to just install a slightly bigger battery than it is an ICE generator and fuel system, especially once government subsidies are taken into account and all the government costs with getting the generator certified since now it has to go through every country's emissions testing and so forth which they can skip with electric.

tl;dr: Gubment and simplicity

 

[HemiLonestar]

Works great for locomotives and ships (even submarines), but not exactly the hot ticket for a mass produced vehicle that has to perform and adhere to CAFE and other standards. It would definitely throw most people to crank up a diesel that goes from idle to whatever electrical current generation speed they decide to use. Throttle pedal would be connected to the electric motors, so they'd press the pedal, truck would go but engine noise would stay steady with minor fluctuations based on electrical load. That right there would **** most people up lol.

 

[crash68]

Where things will probably head for trucks(light through heavy duty) will be hydrogen fuel cells, Cummins has invested considerably into heading that direction. All the benefits of of a battery EV but with the ability/speed similar to refueling with diesel/gas.