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Comment by beamso | Hacker News Reader

BMW i3 REX as well.

Close, except for they lobbed a motorcycle engine into an electric car and called it a "range-extender" but the engine can't generate power to meet maximum demand of the car's electrical system.

So, instead of putting the motorcycle engine in as an afterthought take a 1.5l turbo as the primary source of electricity generation.

> So, instead of putting the motorcycle engine in as an afterthought take a 1.5l turbo as the primary source of electricity generation.

This is kinda what they did on my new 225xe.

7(?)kWh battery, decent electrical drive, and said 1.5l turbo for if the car needs more power or range.

Under real-world conditions, the battery seems to be good for about 40km of electrical driving in my current temperate climate (where I don't really need cooling or heating).

So far, it's a fun car.

I hadn't heard of the 225xe, that's a much more intelligent build out.

The 225xe looks like a completely different system, it's not a series hybrid where the ICE feeds into the electric engine, it's a parallel hybrid with completely separate drivetrains, the electric engine in propulsion and the ICE in traction (which can be used at the same time for 4WD).

Why put a bigger motor in? You really don't need to meet the max power consumption of the electric motors, that's what the battery is there for.

However, I will point out that the i3 REX gets relatively poor fuel economy when running on gas -- only about 40 mpg, nowhere near what a parallel-hybrid Prius can get.

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