That’s actually a pretty creative solution if you’re far from a charging station.
I ~~understand this is in Brazil (see the stores) and they have few charging places. ~~ Edit: not Brazil it’s Mexico. Not sure about EV infrastructure there.
Nope, it’s in Mexico. I can’t say what the situation is with charging stations, tho, since I don’t own an EV.
This is a good idea, though.
Piston engines are way, way, way more efficient (and cheaper to make) when optimized for one RPM and a static load (like a generator). They can be tiny if running at 100% throttle all the time; a few horsepower is enough. Excluding the transmission saves weight/cost, and a generator for a few horsepower isn’t that big.
Yeah, you get electrical loss, but everything else more than makes up for it.
Now I want to see a fuel line running to the generator from a 2nd tanker trailer.
As funny as this is… Dodge released a fully electric truck that contains a V6 generator. Goes 690 miles one trip and can pull 14,000lbs.
Just charge the battery from a dynamo.
Germany during WWII did something kind of like this. They modified some of their cars to run on wood gas and they would tow a wood stove on a trailer that generated the gas, with an attached hose that would feed it into the engine. A sensible plan when your only source of oil is Romania and all of your horses have been requisitioned by the army for its “blitzkrieg”.
You don’t need a trailer for that. It just attaches to the car. Doesn’t weigh so much as to need a vehicle of it’s own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator
Here’s a Dodge V10 with one.
And here’s one from WWII so ppl don’t think they were much bigger back then
They’re an interesting thing to say the least. Finland had a lot of wood gas generators in use during WWII as what limited petrol we had went towards the war effort. Other substitute fuels were used a lot as well, e.g. pine turpentine which we had a lot of as it’s a side product of refining wood into pulp.
It’s a relatively efficient system, and burns quite cleanly in the engine (as soot and other contaminants are filtered out by the generator). Though they’re quite dangerous, since wood gas is mainly pure carbon monoxide. The amounts they produce are so high that leaks or topping up the generator can cause carbon monoxide poisoning even when outside. In Finnish we actually call the generator häkäpönttö, which in English would be a carbon monoxide can (häkä colloquial Finnish for carbon monoxide, pönttö a colloquial Finnish word meaning a can, container, carton or someone dumb in a usually non-derogatory way – closest equivalent in English would be dummy).
Yeah that’s actually how I googled it. Couldn’t for the life of me get “wood stove generator” into my head but “häkäpönttö” is easy.
And I’d agree that, like many Finnish words, it doesn’t properly translate. A pönttö would be closer to a barrel, I’d say, than a can. A can sort of implies a smaller one. Although yes, “garbage can” would be a can as well and nearly on a similar scale as a häkäpönttö.
It’s sometimes crazy hard explaining all the implications of a given word. You know them but listing them would be hard.
But yeah especially with how much forests and forestry we have, it was a very good solution in WWII. We needed the proper petrol for all those tanks we stole from the Ruskis. We started the war with genuinely a few old Pösö tanks from WWI and stole most of what we had by the end of the war. (That’s Peugeot for non-Finns haha)
Good point with the barrel, truth is probably somewhere between the barrel and a can. After all, there’s also pönttö, both vessan- and linnun-, which again are on the smaller side. I kinda love how much nuance and double meanings there are in especially the spoken language.
True meaning can only be grasped with enough exposure.
Didn’t we also have some Vickers six-tonners at the start? Next to useless by then but probably could penetrate at least a BT-5.
Edit: now that I think of it, a canister probably fits quite well between the sizes of can and barrel. But to me it would then be a closed container, which a pönttö doesn’t necessarily have to be.
Ture, “bird cans” aren’t especially large. But they’re not like beer cans. You could never really say “annappa se kaljapönttö” unless you were talking about a barrel or a small bucket of beer.
Didn’t we also have some Vickers six-tonners at the start?
If you say so, alls I remembers is one of the tanks we stole from Russia is still being prominently displayed in the Häme Regiment base in Lahti… checks on his facts Fuck, I’m too old for this shit. The Häme Regiment (HämR) was a regiment that was shut down in 2014. I mean, it was about time. But I’m still curious as to what happened to the tank I was talking about… Well, say what you want about LLM’s (and they do sort of threaten a lot of society but) but it was pretty good in searching for info like this. I explained to Gemini where I did my service and asked about the tank.
Where is it now? After the Häme Regiment was disbanded in 2014, most of the heavy historical equipment was moved. That T-34 was relocated to the Parola Armour Museum (Panssarimuseo) to ensure it was preserved and maintained, as the Hennala site transitioned into a residential and civilian area.
So yeah. Anyway, my point was that I just remember reading the sign saying how many we took from the Soviets. And also our lieutenants and whatnot military fanatics giving us some history on them. Then I couldn’t remember the number years after so I googled it and saw we only had some puny WWI tanks before. Honestly, I don’t even know what a Vickers six-ton is, but I’m guessing British…? (Because I do know what a Vickers gun is) Checking.
Yah. Thanks for the info.
Finland – used 33 tanks since 1938 (including an evaluation tank). They were bought unarmed, without optics and radios. Some were armed with short-barreled 37 mm Puteaux guns and later equipped with 37 mm Bofors anti-tank guns as their main gun with a coaxial turret MG and a “tank SMG” in bow plate. They were used in the Winter War with the USSR. After this war, the Finns rearmed Mark E tanks with captured Soviet long 45 mm guns and DT MGs as used in the T-26. The Finns designated the rebuilt Vickers tanks logically as: T-26Es. They were used in combat from 1941 to 1944 and remained in service as training tanks until 1959.
Oh yeah.
So about half and half apparently:
Before the Winter War (Nov 1939), Finland’s tank forces were minimal, consisting mainly of 32-34 obsolete Renault FT-17 light tanks (acquired 1919) and about 30-32 recently purchased Vickers 6-ton light tanks, which were still being fitted with armament. They had no medium or heavy tanks
So we had like 60 light tanks. By the end of the war we had captured and destroyed, quite a few.
Oh yeah and about the languages, yeah, if you speak both Finnish and English fluently, it’s awesome what weird shit you can combine because of the different natures of the languages. My friends used to think me a bit pretentious for inserting English phrases or words into Finnish, but that was like 10+ years ago. Nowadays most speak Finglish pretty fluently and it doesn’t matter if you add a bit of London while completely speaking Finnish, as long as you’re not doing it just to be pretentious, but because the word/phrase suits better (or you’ve just forgotten the Finnish word, which happens to me quite a bit nowadays.)
No it is not
Refraccionera = repair shop, mexican dialect
Sign with E in red cancel mark is No Estiocionar = No parking
Oxxo = Convience store common in Latin america
Street sign says Avenida Sur = South Avenue
It’s probably not AI, güey. No mames
No mames?? 😢
Fucking slop alright
No, that guy’s just a short version of me.
I got triggered on this! Very weird place to put a huge OXXO sign like this. They have probably done it to underline their Gas Station chain roots. It is just stupid in my eyes to do it in a city where your convenience store is located in densely packed street. Maybe on the roof or something but not on the street so close to your building.
You would love my city. They will happily install street lights in the middle of sidewalks. The city doesn’t maintain sidewalks so half of them are broken to bits or grown over, or a lot of folks just park on them. Pedestrians go into the streets, you’ll sometimes get stuck behind an old person in a walker crossing an intersection. It’s maddening but no one cares.
That’s just what his leg do
The names oF ensigns too.
Not buying it: How would you charge (generator) and discharge (motor) the car at the same time? The electronics and software is designed to only charge the battery when parked. My car won’t even shift into gear if it’s plugged in.
I mean, this one is fake, but there is a company creating haluers that do pretty much this. Have a small battery they recharge with a generator. According to them, a generator is a lot more efficient and enviromentaly friendly compared to normal engine, since it runs at constant rpm.
Name and (the opposite of) shame!
You’re talking about Edison Motors, right?
Yes, but I couldn’t recall the name. Thanks for mentioning it.
Actually, the constant RPM ones are less efficient, the inverter generators that are able to vary with the load that are more efficient. But yes, they are better at turning the fuel into usable power. Traditional ice engines lose something like 40% of the power made just in Losses from gearing transmission axel etc. So while it may seem silly technically using a generator to charge an EV is more efficient
FWIW, people have made a real working version of this concept before.
Still more efficient than a diesel car https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-ev-charged-with-diesel-generator-still-cleaner-than-conventional-car-61942/
Hate to be that guy, but… Refaccionaria. AI sloppity slop 😔
“Refaccionaria” is just “auto parts shop” in Mexican Spanish.
I’m inclined to say that this is not AI since it got that word correctly. And the other text as well.
I mean, I’m not going to say that it’s or not an artificially made picture, but “refaccionaria” is a perfectly cromulent word in Spanish: Refaccionaria at the Diccionario de la Lengua Española.
Looking at the people on the sidewalk is enough to see it.
Honestly given how consistent the rest of the image is on all of the things which would not be moving, minor errors with people walking on the street almost more looks like phone camera processing/stitching errors. Especially with how many phone cameras now take a burst of photos and stitch them together to make a higher quality photo
Looks like a ministry of funny walks convention
Sidewalk’s for regular walkin. Not for fancy walkin.
A couple manufacturers were showing off EREV at the big manufacturer auto show, basically EV with a small gas engine to extend the range. Less motor than a hybrid, but enough to get some pretty ridiculous range out of a single combined charge/tank. Basically what this image is implying.
Seems like a decent idea for people that use their vehicle for longer distances.
I’ve been asking forever why we aren’t seeing gasoline electric vehicles. It’s literally been standard practice for diesel locomotives for basically as long as diesels have been dominant, you hook a gigantic diesel generator (prime mover)to a pair of gigantic electric motors (traction motors), and when you want to slow the consist without consuming your precious air for more intense braking, you can just turn the motors into generators and dump the energy into giant resistor banks on the roof (dynamic braking) or into an battery powered engine behind your diesel electric engine
You get the power of electric motors, the mechanical simplicity of electric transmission, and the range and rapid refueling of an internal combustion engine. The disconnect between the prime mover and the traction motors means each can be tuned to their respective efficiency curves (especially if a bank of batteries/capacitors is included as a buffer) so you get more efficient idling, more efficient acceleration adds the options of connecting slugs (units with no prime mover nor control cab) or b-units (units with no cab)
I’ve been asking forever why we aren’t seeing gasoline electric vehicles
They’re called hybrids. The reason they’re not in series is because it’s more efficient once the engine is at “cruise” speed to just let the engine spin the wheels directly instead of losing 15% going engine to electric then electric to electric motor.
So instead of a transmission, hybrids use a planetary differential. That way everything is always spinning at maximum efficiency.
I suppose I could see how that could math out, assuming the engine running at an appropriate RPM to transmit to the wheels isn’t less fuel efficient than an engine running at an appropriate RPM to generate electricity.
The thing that turns it on its head for gasoline electric though is the IC engine can be almost anything and do almost anything if all it’s doing is spinning an alternator with sufficient power buffer before the electric motors. The IC engine could run at a single constant RPM at all times if that’s most efficient, or it could be a more car-like thing that adjusts it’s RPMs based on load. Or maybe it runs at constant RPMs but the count of active cylinders changes depending on load. The types of engines that can be used suddenly becomes immense because of this too
I just find it hard to believe that the most efficient option for a hybrid is 2 drivetrains. That always struck me like it was more engineers specialized in ICE vehicles simply designing what they know rather than something more bold and imaginative
Sounds like a GM Volt (not Bolt) or a BMW i3. Good thing both models were discontinued. Just in time for gas prices to go up again, right on schedule.
A quick look seems like the EREVs proposed to be available in the US are all trucks and large SUVs. Ford, Jeep, Hyundai, and Genesis among others. That sucks, why do they have to be big cars? Like to have a smaller sedan with great range.
Because “trucks” have less stringent regulations (both for efficiency and safety) so farmers can keep using their old beater pickups.
BMW did it long ago in the i3 with the range extender. Not the best attempt though. They made it tiny, but it still had a heavy battery (though obviously not a very big one, just heavy for a car of this size), so to get the weight down, they used carbon fiber, but it was supposed to be an economy car and now with carbon fiber it was expensive.
Idea itself is not bad though.
this is a great idea! love it. can we skip the small engine and just install a small fission reactor instead?
Ok, but can we swap the car for very large boat?
im affraid we cannot.
Was the gas engine like a trickle charge?
Basically! The gasoline engine could provide some of the needed energy while driving to reduce battery drain but not enough to keep up with the motors’ energy consumption. It still needs to be plugged in to charge and can be driven in pure electric mode for short distances
It’s been a couple months but if I remember right the gas engine worked alongside the battery, it wasn’t possible to direct drive the car with the gas engine. Yes, it could charge the battery.
Every hybrid made today has the engine direct drive the wheels when it’s most efficient to do so. Serial hybrids died because they weren’t as efficient.
This is basically what every EREV is. The generator is just integrated into the car, otherwise it’s essentially the same thing.
It’s also how modern freight trains work minus the battery. The big diesel engines only produce the electricity for the electric motors.
At the same time, I’ve wondered if it would be helpful for EVs on some long-distance road trips to tow/stow a generator for overnight and emergency charging. Charging stations are popping up more and more, but if you’re saddled with an obsolete or under-served charging port type (e.g. Nissan Leaf), having a generator would be valuable insurance.
Every EV can just hook up with a (mostly) passive adapter to any outlet and get a charge. It won’t be fast (especially if you are cursed with a 110V outlet), but even in the boonies an overnight trickle charge will get you to the nearest fast charger. Just get the relevant adapters for your car.
This is basically what your generator would do except you want to lug it around instead of leveraging the cables that we pulled within driving distance of everywhere but the most remote trails? The whole point of electricity is its versatility and ubiquity!
FYI using a wall plug to charge an EV is a perfectly normal thing to do. For a small(ish) commute, regular 220V@10A is way more than enough to get back to full overnight. It won’t give you 500 km of range, but only freaks and truckers drive 500 km every day.
FYI using a wall plug to charge an EV is a perfectly normal thing to do. For a small(ish) commute, regular 220V@10A is way more than enough to get back to full overnight. It won’t give you 500 km of range, but only freaks and truckers drive 500 km every day.
When I’ve crunched the numbers in the past, more efficient EVs would get something like 50 miles overnight for a commuter with just a 120V outlet to work with, so if you get one full charge over the weekend, it’ll still be fully charged by the next weekend if you didn’t deviate from your commute, or a maybe a bit lower if you did.
Mostly right but in the US we have way more dead zones, and we also have 110-120v outlets in most places. There are 220-240v outlets, but mostly only for electric ranges, dryers, and big AC units, and almost never outside a house or hotel. And charging at 120v 20amps does kinda suck. About as much as using this generator would.
That’s all true. And FWIW, I’ve only ever charged my EV on 120v at home, so I’m familiar with the limitations.
I’m thinking of the worst case where my trip planner accidentally sends me to a location where the intended charger is long gone or in-use, and I have too little charge to make it to the next viable location. Also: it’s 3AM and nobody is open. Sure, I could sleep that off in the car and/or throw myself on the mercy of some hotel, but that’s sketchy in other ways. Or maybe I’m stranded due to a moment’s inattention?
To me, that all reduces to “be resourceful” so why not pack some additional resources?
If we are going that direction, why not battery packs that fit in the trunk?
I think I’ve seen some battery trailer some years ago.
damn, nissan leaf is under served? I guess that product placement in sim city whichever fucking year glass box was didn’t pay off
I’ve been thinking about getting a Slate truck eventually, and I’m suddenly realizing a generator on a trailer might be good for overlanding, since there aren’t any chargers on remote trails.
Not really. Not all energy comes from fossil fuel…
He’s not talking about full EVs, he’s talking about “Extended Range Electric Vehicles” which are EVs with a motor that only charges the battery on long trips.
Basically a specific kind of plug in hybrid.
https://carbuzz.com/extended-range-electric-vehicles-what-erevs-look-like-in-2025/
Today I Learned. Thanks.
Oh hell no. Can we have one comm without slop?
