Fig-Leaf!

Hybrid vehicles where the powerful part of the car is the combustion engine using the e-motor for the "weak" tasks of slow motion driving is what I name the "Fig-Leaf Concept".

The "Fig-Leaf Concept" is the way how the car manufacturer lobby is proofing to the public how weak the electric part of the drive is compared to the powerful combustion engine. But it gives them a "green" and environmental responsible face.

Benefits gained in using an electric motor for slow motion driving are eaten up by loss in charging/ discharging a battery usually based on lead in these cars.

Often one will find that the combustion engine is thoroughly featured, whilst details of the electrical part of the drive like energy flow or efficiency is hardly mentioned. These concepts are usually based on the standard petrol car chassis and the electric parts are additional weight, and the battery is placed taking parts of the trunk away therefore providing less comfort and cost more!
As crude oil based fuel comes closer to be used up and the preasure on CO2 regulations petrol prices will rise and the reason petrol cars won the market early last century is disappearing.

Given a production quantity comparable to a standard car prices of batteries will not keep electric driven cars from being less expensive than vehicles driven by a mechanical device needing over 200 moving parts, explosions producing incredible heat in it's motor for getting it going.

Therefore the only future save vehicle concept can be the one which is not using a combustion facility or any organic fuel at all. In the long run even hydrogen driven cars make little sense - why first using electricity to produce hydrogen, distribute it by trucks to then burn it in a combustion engine driven car? Even bio-fuel produced based on growing plants or waste-gas will have to be burned up producing CO2 gases.
Any combustion is producing extreme heat adding to global warming surely more than the moderate working temperature of an electric motor!

Proper hybrid vehicles with 4 wheels exclusively powered by electric motors is able to use all these possibilities to be fed with energy - even petrol using an on-board generator, whilst the "false" hybrid concept never can run without the fed of petrol. Documented by the fact that most of these hybrid cars would not even provide an electrical plug for being re-charged at the mains.

"The Swiss Model" is one of the ideas to create direct electrical energy capturing sun light by solar panels installed on a house roof and feeding it into the mains - using the mains as buffer storage - to re-charge the electric vehicle back from the mains later.

Cars fitting into the category of "fig-leaf" hybrid concepts are
(to list some of them) the Toyota Prius, Lexus Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid,

Here some "proper" future oriented electric hybrids whereby the wheels are exclusively electric powered:
Mitsubishi CT Hybrid Concept, with four electric motors, one for every wheel...
GM Volt - range of about 56 km given by a lithium ion battery pack.
Tesla - 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds, 200 km/h top speed, over 350km range

There is again a fundamental difference withing pure electric driven cars.
The related information soon will appear on this blog together with more detailed Information in regards to existing or future concepts of electric-hybrid or pure electric driven vehicles.

Any input which could help to increase the density of information is very welcome.
Please contact me: the-e-man

Did you know?

... that electric Cars go back as far as to the early 1830s, a the time when electric car creations started to appear - Scottish, Dutch, Americans and French. During the late 1800s France and Great Britain were the first to support the further development of electric vehicles. "La Jamais Contente" a Belgian built electric racing car set a world record for land speed nearly a 110km/h - in 1899. Yes right! 1899!

Even before the 20th century began the first commercial fleet of electric driven taxis in New York City was built having a range of around 28km/h and 18km/h fast.
The first hybrid car with built in combustion engine and an e-motor occured as early as 1916.

Arround 1900 electric cars in America were out-selling all other types of vehicles in not having the vibration, noise and smell created by petrol driven cars. What was the most difficult piece of technology in petrol cars - the gearbox - was not needed in electric vehicles at all.

The discovery of crude oil in Texas and the resulting availability of cheap petrol in combination with Ransom Olds' and some years later Henry Ford's mass production of cheap petrol cars killed the e-vehicle and triggered the environmental disaster the combustion engine would cause in the century to come.

Any input which could help to increase the density of information is very welcome.
Please contact me: the-e-man