How much of a generator would you need to power an electric car?

Question

How much of a generator would you need to power an electric car?

Answer 1

If only you could drive a Locomotive on the street...well, the drivetrain is similar.

Answer 2

the tZero http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero/ has a "long ranger" option of a small genertator trailer

http://www.acpropulsion.com/vehicles/pag...

giveing a performance that will out accelerate a ferrari or corvette

Because electric motors are very efficient you can use a very small generator running at constant load to give the power you need.

Answer 3

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but generators don't power cars directly, do they?  Generators generate electricity.  Electric motors power cars.  Generators make power which is normally stored in batteries.  The batteries power the electric motors.  I guess there is some point at which you would have to have a certain size of generator to power the motor directly when the batteries were drained, but the size of the generator would be dependent on the size of the motor that was chosen to power the vehicle.

Answer 4

It always amazes me how liberal "Environmentalists" just cast aside all Common sense, Logic, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and other basic laws of Science in their arguments for the La La Land of energy alternates.

Some of the answers are so foolish.

If you believe alternatives were fouled by corporations or governments, then you have to believe that government or corporations had to stop all the brilliant engineers, Scientists, and entrepreneurs in Japan, China, Korea, India, and all of Europe as well. All of these countries have been in a fuel crisis for many years. Some of these countries have "0" oil or coal. You must believe all of them are just as stupid as you are.

To answer your question, it depends on how fast you need to or can charge the battery. It would take a huge one to charge a very large powerful battery big enough to power a car very far. One of the new designs I looked at that claims rapid charging would need it's own Power Plant or It's own Sub Station to achieve their claims.

Answer 5

one horsepower = 750 watts

200 hp gasoline engine = 150,000 watts, or 15kW

30,000,000 200hp cars in America would use 450,000,000 watts an hour. or 450 megawatts an hour. Times 4 hours a day = 1,800 mWh a day.  Times 300 days a year = 540,000 mWh a year.

and to the guy above about Chevron stealing the battery design: We ALL know it was the government and it went to Area 51 to power the Mother Ship

3 Mile island generates about 6 mWh a year.

so, 1000 3 Mile island sized plants and we can get rid of gas driven cars.

Answer 6

E= m(c x 2) It's the law!

Answer 7

(EDIT) I dont know but I hear a great battery for long range driving was invented a few years back, and an oil company bought the rights to it to make sure it was not available for producing electric cars.

California's 1990 ZEV mandate forced GM and other auto makers to produce Battery Electric cars such as the GM EV1. GM purchased control of the patents from the inventor, Stan and the late Iris Ovshinsky, in 1994 forming "GM Ovonics" under the guise of going into production with the EV1. But GM's Andy Card had been fighting Electric cars for years, and GM's true intention became apparent when on Oct. 10, 2000, GM agreed to sell their control of the EV batteries to Texaco. Less than a week later, on Oct. 16, 2000, only days after Texaco acquired control of the batteries, Chevron agreed to purchase Texaco in a $100 billion merger. Chevron announced the merger even though the GM sale of the batteries to what would become Chevron did not close until July 17, 2000. Perhaps Chevron wanted this sale to be announced prior to the merger so it would not look like Chevron (formerly Standard Oil of California) worked directly with GM. > >>