Auto Mechanics Set to Rake in the Bucks
A recent story in the Orange County Register indicated that for around $5,000, you can convert a gas car to total electric. The article mentioned a local woman who plugs her total electric in every night and drives a fair distance commute every day and the electric bill is only $2 per day. Of course, even with gas prices what they are and are likely to be next year and the next year and the next year, $5,000 buys a lot of gas, and batteries will only take you so far on a charge, and they don't last forever, either.
So? Two thoughts come to mind.
First, I could take some old van with the stand up raised roof, the fridge and stereo surround DTS theatre and carpet and the little ladder on the rear that nobody wants any more because it gets 8 miles per gallon on a good day, put $8,000 into converting to electric and then install an off-the-shelf heavy-duty, high efficiency Cummings or Briggs and Stratton generator in the rear, with proper venting, and welded mounts, etc. for a couple thousand more, and presto! I've got a hybrid. Full out, the generator probably burns about a gallon per hour, so (minus battery life depreciation), I'm going to be getting 30 to 50 miles per gallon!
Cool. So, the old-school auto-mechanics who know how to tear out gas motors and how everything else works will suddenly find a HUGE demand for their skills in coming years, as people decide to take their treasured land yaughts and big RVs and huge vans and make them economically viable again.
And, this will drive the battery industry to make better, more standardized batteries, and the generator manufacturers to build generator kits especially optimized for conversions to hybrid use, including LNG, propane, diezel (most efficient of all)...
Ultimately, I think that at least one of the big car manufacturers is going to realize that instead of tying the cars to an electric cord or forcing people to lug around generators, why not just swap out the batteries. At your gas station, you pull up, a robot tray slides out, your main battery-pack slides out, a newly charged one slides in, and you're on your way with a full charge.
That last possibility is speculative, to be sure, as the hybrids may just take over permanently and completely. But regardless, I foresee a very strong likelihood that our auto-mechanics are going to be making the big bucks in the near future... So, guys, get ready to come out of retirement; your country needs you!
Now that I've checked out some of the electric-car homebrew sites, a couple of issues have emerged.
First, it's widely assumed that you need a 20+ horsepower gas/diesel/LNG motor to power your generator. This is true if you're driving a larger vehicle long distances, especially in hilly country or stop-and-go driving. Bigger vehicles, cetaris paribus, have more wind drag, more momentum to overcome, etc.
But what if you're a typical communter with a smaller car? On the freeway, at 55mph, a reasonably aerodynamic car takes about 6 horsepower to keep it at 55mhp. With various conversion losses, etc., that means you probably need at least a 12 hp gas generator for any long road trips.
But, if your longest expected trip is under 200 miles one-way, and you start out fully charged with a 100 mile range on the battery, acquired from your house lawn cord, how much will you need? If six hp will cover half the energy demand, then at the 100 mile mark, you have 50 miles left on the battery. At the 150 mile mark, you have 25. At the 175 mark, you have 12. At 187.5, you have 6.
Barring a heavy headwind, you might just make it. And you leave the generator running while you do your thing at the destination, of course. It may take 8 hours, on the downside, to recharge fully for the return trip, unless you can find a power outlet to speed it up. The moral, however, is that you probably don't need overkill here. At 12, or even 10 hp, you could probably make long road trips and have no problem at all with 200 or 300 miles.