At the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week, Raser Technologies, along with FEV, unveiled their H3 Hummer models powered by an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle powertrain. This allows the H3 to go 40 miles on electricity alone, and then use an electric generator and gasoline to go over 600 miles on one tank.
The details for this beast are impressive. A 200kW AC induction motor to drive the wheels, which is 67% larger than the Volt’s 120kW motor. The motor connects to the 4WD transmission, so the vehicle is just as off-road capable as the conventional H3.
When traveling beyond 40 miles or when the batteries are out of energy, the gasoline generator will kick in to recharge the batteries and provide the power needed to drive the motor. At 60 miles per day (20 miles/day on gasoline, 300 miles total per week), the vehicle will get an equivalent of 100 MPG, which means that the 23 gallon tank would only be refilled once every seven weeks. Even when the batteries are depleted on long-distance highway driving, the H3 still gets 33MPG, which is still twice as good as the average MPG of the conventional H3.
Raser also unveiled a 10 minute promotional video, showing off the electric H3.
Raser supplies the AC induction motor and generator, and it appears that A123 systems supplied the batteries for the demonstration project. It is not explicitly mentioned, however a computer generated image of a lithium ion battery in the video linked above has an A123 logo on it, and none of the performance characteristics of the battery are known.
Price is also not something mentioned in the video, and I can bet that it would be expensive. At an estimated 400Wh/mi, the energy needed to travel 40 miles would be approximately 16kWh, requiring a 30kWh battery pack. Estimates indicate that the 16kWh battery pack in the Chevy Volt would cost around $10,000, this 30kWh pack will cost almost double.
Raser advertises that the powertrain can be taken from the H3 and put into other light trucks like the Ford F150 and Chevy Silverado. One of the neat things that Raser points out is that the generator can be used to offer 100kW of power for the worksite, and 100kW is more than enough to power your house in emergency situations, like after a natural disaster.
One Response
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
At the other end of the spectrum is a cute little car called the Bee…
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/21/bee-one-electric-car-to-be-tiny-cheap-and-cute/
Small, but VERY inexpen$ive…