AgitatedPancake
Frobot
So let's start the conversation. I don't have proper terminology for almost any of this, so if you know the proper language for the industry, please chime in.
Motor configurations:
1) Simply replace a gas engine with an electric motor, leave the transmission, transfer case, axles as they are for a standard internal combustion vehicle. In some applications people could also skip the transmission, depending on how well the motor characteristics work with the final drive ratio.
2) Take something like the rear drive unit from a Tesla, put it in the center of the chassis so the rear axle shaft outputs act as transfer case outputs. Ideally you regear it because of the extra downstream reductions it will see (now having ring and pinions downstream of the axle shaft outputs).
3) Central drive units. This is what you see in Tesla vehicles, where the motor unit is the differential. No power transfer required through the chassis, it is all generated right at each axle. While the Tesla units are specifically designed for independent suspensions, there are engineering companies that have been investing heavily in solid axle equivalents as well, to be used as retrofit into vehicles that are currently IC powered
4)Hub motors. The motors themselves are actually located in the hub of each wheel. While it creates additional unsprung mass (penalty), the simplicity of having no driveshafts, axle shafts, differentials, transmissions etc is incredible. It also unlocks suspension geometry to an extreme level, no longer is everything revolving around the critical maximums of CV joints.
Battery configurations:
The required voltage is dictated by the motor/inverter combo you choose, and from there you're able to build in more capacity by maintaining that voltage but increasing the Amp Hours of the battery pack (need to be specific multiples of the cell quantities required for the needed voltage, so the whole system is balanced. You can't "just add 1 more battery module"). But you can break them down into individual symmetrical subpacks for convenience and swapping if necessary.
The potentials of Series-Hybrid:
This is where things get interesting to me. Basically you completely build your electric vehicle with one of the above configurations, and then you add an onboard IC generator that actively recharges as you deplete the batteries. Most hybrids of the last decade still had a direct link between the engine and the axles, but these series hybrids are fully disconnected. The engine is only acting as a generator. There are more and more of these hybrids hitting the road now, but I think it has pretty dramatic implications for the offroad world as well. Imagine having something like 400HP on tap via the electric motors for the drivetrain, and you have a 100HP generator onboard. While you're full throttle pulling all 400HP you're drawing down the batteries, but then when you ease out of it and get to the point of steady state cruising only requiring say 50hp, the excess power is regenerating the batteries, When the batteries get full, the generator shuts down. Automatically cycling as necessary (or however you want to tune it to act).
Obviously this is just a very very basic overview to at least get the conversation started over here. Would be sweet to continue the discussion on the technical concept side of things, and if you have seen any sweet builds that deserve recognition, add it to the conversation!
Motor configurations:
1) Simply replace a gas engine with an electric motor, leave the transmission, transfer case, axles as they are for a standard internal combustion vehicle. In some applications people could also skip the transmission, depending on how well the motor characteristics work with the final drive ratio.
2) Take something like the rear drive unit from a Tesla, put it in the center of the chassis so the rear axle shaft outputs act as transfer case outputs. Ideally you regear it because of the extra downstream reductions it will see (now having ring and pinions downstream of the axle shaft outputs).
3) Central drive units. This is what you see in Tesla vehicles, where the motor unit is the differential. No power transfer required through the chassis, it is all generated right at each axle. While the Tesla units are specifically designed for independent suspensions, there are engineering companies that have been investing heavily in solid axle equivalents as well, to be used as retrofit into vehicles that are currently IC powered
4)Hub motors. The motors themselves are actually located in the hub of each wheel. While it creates additional unsprung mass (penalty), the simplicity of having no driveshafts, axle shafts, differentials, transmissions etc is incredible. It also unlocks suspension geometry to an extreme level, no longer is everything revolving around the critical maximums of CV joints.
Battery configurations:
The required voltage is dictated by the motor/inverter combo you choose, and from there you're able to build in more capacity by maintaining that voltage but increasing the Amp Hours of the battery pack (need to be specific multiples of the cell quantities required for the needed voltage, so the whole system is balanced. You can't "just add 1 more battery module"). But you can break them down into individual symmetrical subpacks for convenience and swapping if necessary.
The potentials of Series-Hybrid:
This is where things get interesting to me. Basically you completely build your electric vehicle with one of the above configurations, and then you add an onboard IC generator that actively recharges as you deplete the batteries. Most hybrids of the last decade still had a direct link between the engine and the axles, but these series hybrids are fully disconnected. The engine is only acting as a generator. There are more and more of these hybrids hitting the road now, but I think it has pretty dramatic implications for the offroad world as well. Imagine having something like 400HP on tap via the electric motors for the drivetrain, and you have a 100HP generator onboard. While you're full throttle pulling all 400HP you're drawing down the batteries, but then when you ease out of it and get to the point of steady state cruising only requiring say 50hp, the excess power is regenerating the batteries, When the batteries get full, the generator shuts down. Automatically cycling as necessary (or however you want to tune it to act).
Obviously this is just a very very basic overview to at least get the conversation started over here. Would be sweet to continue the discussion on the technical concept side of things, and if you have seen any sweet builds that deserve recognition, add it to the conversation!
