I started sharing this with everyone I could several years ago. It looks like a few are beginning to catch up. Mitsubishi has produced the wheel drive system. Their design uses only LI batteries. It is strictly plug in. When you open the engine compartment, there is just a big open space.

I really think this is the way to go. With a strong commitment by the feds, we could grow and process all the biodiesel we need from algae grown around the Salton Sea.
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For about the past year I have offered anyone who would listen the following info: One of the American automobile companies has responded. I have had some positive response from several educational institutions but – as far as I know – none have done any experimental work to verify my claims.

Here is what I have been proposing:

In one scale or another every one of these systems have been proven.

Like to produce a vehicle that can burn rubber on takeoff on all four wheels and get 90+ mpg?

What I would like to see the automakers working on would have:

1. A turbocharged, two cylinder opposed, 2-cycle, air-cooled diesel directly driving a generator. (It would not be running most of the time.)

2. A 111 volt Lithium-Ion Polymer battery pack.

3. Nothing but wires going from the controller to every wheel, except for the necessary additional friction brakes (of course).

4. An added advantage of this would be the ability to recharge from the electrical grid while at home, saving even more on fuel.

Each wheel, depending on the feedback to the controller from wheel speed sensors would drive with just the right power depending on the accelerator position. You would get recharging from deceleration just as you do in today’s hybrids. You would also use this feedback to stop the wheel from skidding.

Each wheel would have a stationary stator and a series of fixed magnets closely adjacent all around the inside of the wheel. In a sense it would operate each wheel in a very similar fashion that the maglev trains use, except the motion would be circular, of course. Something very different about this type of motor is that the stators are fixed to the axles and the magnets are driven around them. This gives a significant increase in mechanical advantage. That’s like turning an ordinary electric motor inside out.

There would be no need for ordinary electric motor brushes. In fact, many electric motors operating today are brushless.

Such motors already exist in the model airplane field and their efficiently is amazing – approaching 90%. I’ve got a couple and doubt that I would ever buy any other type.

It’s possible to hang the model on the prop right out in front of you and accelerate straight up, like a rocket, with this type motor.

In the vehicle the motor/generator would not turn on to recharge the batteries until they needed it. There is already experimental Lithium-Ion driven cars that can get in excess of 200 miles before they have to be recharged by plugging them in. You would top off your batteries overnight by plugging them in. Some cutting edge research by Toshiba -employing nano-technology – indicates that recharging can be done so fast that you could top off while eating lunch.

Lithium -Ion battery technology is so new that I doubt that very many automotive engineers have even heard of them, much less thought to use them in this manner. Their energy density exceeds that of any other form of rechargeable energy storage.

The Lithium Ion battery is the most efficient battery available right now. So is the outer rotor electric motor the most efficient motor.

Build an Automobile right and it will weight less and have simpler, easier to repair/replace modules.

Lets see what we can eliminate while improving performance and efficiency.

Transmission – None

Ignition system – None

Liquid cooling – None

Valves and valve train – None

Use bio-oil/fuels for both fuel and lubrication.

Feel free to pass this along to anyone you know in the Transportation business.

I bought a Honda Civic Hybrid last summer. I enjoy it more than any vehicle I’ve ever owned. I will Never buy another vehicle that isn’t a Hybrid and doesn’t get at least 50 mpg.

As far as I can tell, Detroit isn’t even thinking the same way I and the vast majority of its potential customers are.

Mitsubishi has produced the wheel motor/drive I mentioned above. You can see an illustration at: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/new_mitsubishi__1.html Scroll down and click on illustration. You can get it to fill the page by a second click.

Good Luck!

William Lucas Jones
490 Mauldin Rd.
Sautee, GA 30571-3159

(706) 219-3333

As for “economics classes”, it seems that RAN knows how business works better than Ford. Afterall, Ford’s stock is under ten bucks and they’re losing money like crazy. RAN’s only offering some tough love. My last car was a Ford and I sold it because I felt guilty driving it. I’d love to feel proud about my country’s automakers again someday.

http://www.jumpstartford.com/news/newsitem.php?id=1551&area=ford

It lays out a great vision for what Detroit and the American auto industry could be if it truly embraced fuel efficiency rather than just greenwashing.

Here’s a taste:

“What if a major automaker decided to reinvent itself as the world’s first and only green car company, producing only hybrid, clean-diesel and other high-efficiency vehicles? Not Birkenstocks on wheels, mind you, but enjoyable, functional cars that get great mileage.”