Her's a thought.

Two factors come to mind: 1 Weight. 2 space.
For now, battery technology is not advance enough to practically acheive a good compromise. EV vehicles don't have to deal with an ICE, therefore they need a large,heavy battery to get a range that is somewhat acceptable. A Hybrid that could achieve a 100 mile range in electric mode would simply be heavy. Without going into too much detail, that would bring up a whole other set of challenges. Boeing company is finding this to be true with the battery system on the 787 Dreamliner. They had to go to Aluminum wiring and Lithium batteries because of weight issues. It cost them dearly.

 

If you're referring to the Leaf, there was an article on the front page yesterday about its real world range dropping down to 30 mpg or so for cabbies in japan...it sure seems like there can be some serious improvements in battery technology.

Oh, and the Boeing thing BZ mentioned, any new developments on that? Last I heard, dreamliners were grounded in some areas of the world?

 

Per the WSJ last Friday, Boing presented a proposal to the FAA that included a 10-point plan to address the battery issues including a fireproof containment box, venting tubes, greater spacing between the cells, and additional temp & voltage monitoring. The FAA is reviewing the proposal and the plane remains grounded in the U.S. and worldwide. Somewhere else, I read an estimate of June to re-launch the plane.

 

These would be called 'plug-in hybrids' (PHEV - Prius plugin, Accord plugin, etc..) or 'extended range electric vehicles' (EREV - Chevy Volt).

I'm sure the manufacturers try very hard to get the best balance of EV range, hybrid range / efficiency, space, cost, but the state of the art is like this -

Prius plugin- starts at $32k, about 11 miles electric range*, about 50 mpg hybrid mode, good cargo space

* not all electric, gas engine will come on if going over 60 MPH, climbing hill, lot of cabin heat / AC

Accord plugin - about $40k, 11 miles EV, ~ 46 mpg thereafter, very small trunk

C-Max Energi plugin - ~ $32k ?, 20 mi EV, low 40s after, greatly reduced cargo space

Volt - $39k, 35 miles all EV, seats only 4, 37 mpg after EV out, small rear seats, limited cargo space

Takes an very expensive, large, heavy traction battery to accelerate a car at any reasonable speed. I asked Toyota about the cost of a Prius plug-in traction battery, but this dealer didn't have it listed.
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Non plugin gas electric hybrids are good choice for most - Prius is very popular, Camry hybrid is only $3,460 more than non hybrid (LE), get 43 mpg city, 41 combined instead of 28 combined, only 2 cu ft. less trunk, and it's faster than the regular 4 cylinder.

Other thing is regular hybrids EV quite a bit in low speed conditons, when ICE warmed up, like 25 mph, sometimes up to 40 mph, just not when high power is needed for accelerating, climbing hills, higher speed.

 

A couple of things: Volt is 38miles (35 is older models). C-Max and Accord real world mileage/range are still up in the air whereas PIP and Volt are known.

 

Very simply...take a Prius plugin which goes about 10-15 miles per charge and consider what it takes to make it go 6-8 times as far in EV mode. You would need to take the ~175 lb battery and make it about 1000 lbs. To make room for that you need to get rid of the gas tank and the gas engine.

Or you could put it into a 4500 lb SUV...then it would go less than half as far on a charge.

Mike

 

i think a 25 mile pip is doable in the gen IV where the whole car is redesigned to make room for more battery. these advances are slow and steady, not like computer chips. politics also play a role, as do gas prices and public perception.

 

Are you ready to pay $100,000 for that?

I'm not buying a new car until we find out what's up with the graphene supercapacitors: Graphene supercapacitors could make batteries obsolete - Boing Boing