Comment by h2odragon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by h2odragon | Hacker News Reader

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When GM inaugurated the "Saturn" brand, they had all sorts of PR puff describing what we'd now call a "hybrid drive train" for it. None of that happened then, but it was obviously a well realized, cherished dream, engineering done and shelved until some of the missing miracles became more economical. Why no one wants to build an electric car with a small diesel charger engine is still a mystery.

Or look at VR/AR ... Still stuck to the same visions used to scam people out of investment money since the 90s. because more practical ideas can't compete with the hype and scam established industry there.

Why do our smartphones all look like "slates" described in scifi back tot he 60s? because thats what the scifi stories told us we were going to have. Blackberry keyboards were awesome but we can't have a decent keyboard now because its un-stylish?

On the subject of phones with keyboards, I miss sliders :(

> small diesel charger engine

You could lug around a Honda generator itself.

However, we must think beyond Petrol and Diesel. What about plant based fuels, or high blended ones, where the engine can be optimized for constant torque, high efficiency operation.

Current ICE's are optimized for a certain set of assumptions, you know, to drive a vehicle.

A generator, expected to produce a constant current and voltage, can be optimally designed.

Having said that, say you have a generator with you in your EV. You are lugging around the weight, and the power cycle efficiency is reduced due to introduction of electrical energy conversion.

However, again, it serves well to have a tiny generator, that can charge up the vehicle to drive 50 or so miles, enough for emergencies.

The 'range extender' of the BMW i3[1] is basically just that, and the Chevy Volt's engine was also not connected mechanically to its powertrain[2].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_i3#Range_extender_option

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt#Drivetrain

Optimising engines for generator type use works no matter the fuel. In fact it makes them easier to adapt to a range of fuels, i think.

I'm still a fan of ethanol fuel: all the "its so bad" press uses transparent trickery in their arguments like considering the brewers grains waste instead of value added feed; and so on. The "we can use it now" advantages outweigh a lot when pinch comes to shove. That we can produce ethanol locally and small scale is I suspect the biggest reason it fell out of favor.

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