|
| The big limitation was how much power the electric motor could output. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but ultimately between the electric motor and the gas engine, whichever is weakest defines the maximum power output of the transmission. I want to say that for however many kw the motor can output the transmission should be able to output twice that amount (assuming the engine can match it), but I think that depends a lot on the gear ratio of the planetary drive. For simplicity we'll just say it's 50/50.
Otherwise if the engine is substantially mower powerful than the electric motor, it could over-power the motor and back-drive it instead of that power going to the wheels. The first gen Volt has 111 kw traction motor while second gen bumped that to 135 kw so there's not a substantial difference in that regard. But maybe they switched up how power is balanced through the planetary and were able to deliver more total power.
I think Edison has the right application to make it work. Like you mentioned elsewhere a lot of their loaded operation is going downhill and there's opportunity to store and use that energy later when the truck is unloaded. For steady state conditions I don't think a series drivetrain makes a lot of sense. | |
|
PHEV Pickups - Dodge Ramcharger
