I think i've decided to move the blog over here.  Hopefully, I won't lose too many folks by moving the blog, but I like the idea of having a consolidated place for folks to keep up with me and my projects.

So here's a question... why don't car manufacturers do what trains did decades ago?  Modern deisel trains are extremely efficient but it's not because of the fuel they use, but the way the power gets to the wheels.

Modern deisel locomotives are somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, they burn deisel which is a more efficient fuel but the deisel engines don't actually move the train.  The deisel is burned in a normal deisel engine which turns a generator. That generator actually charges a bank of batteries and electric motors are what turn the wheels.

Here's my idea: build a car with a crappy 2-4 cylinder engine in it and use that engine to turn a generator that charges a battery bank.  Then use the electricity to actually move the car. I'm just guessing here, but I would bet you could get 80-100 MPG with that setup.

The beauty of this setup is that the engine can run at it's most efficient RPM's completely independently of whether the car is moving or not.  Engine (deisel or gasoline) produce their most efficient energy at rather narrow range of RPMs.  That range is usually around 70-90% of max RPMs and few people would ever run their normal engines at that speed.  Most cars are geared in such a way that they rarely go above 50% of max RPM.  The second aspect of this is that the engine would only run when the batteries were not fully charged.  Once the batteries charge dropped below a certain level, the engine would kick on and charge the batteries.

Honestly, I don't understand why this idea doesn't get some traction.  It's not new, and it's proven to be extremely efficient.

If anyone wants to steal this idea feel free!

Derek