Matt,
I used to work on electric drivetrain for large Caterpillar mining trucks until last year & I remember that the electric drivetrain was more efficient (in certain, but not all applications) than a traditional mining truck with a torque convertor & automatic transmission but less efficient than a truck with a clutch & manual transmission, which didn’t matter as there were no mining trucks at that time with manual transmission. What I learnt from that job was that while the alternator could be installed in the same volume taken up by a transmission & electric motors could take up the same room as the differential & final drives, the challenge was finding room for the rectifier / invertor cabinet as the vehicles got smaller.
These are just my opinion.
Thanks,
Naveen Rajan
It's already being done in large earth moving dump trucks. They use a generator to drive electric motors at the axles. Probably not practical in an autmobile because of the additional weight of the generator and motors unless the "prime mover" is small and light enough to compensate for the weight and size of the additional required equipment. Intriguing idea, though.
