Dear Car Talk:
I read your reply today in the Va Pilot about solar panels to keep the battery charged on electric cars. Very interesting answer.
I served many years on the old diesel submarines and we had AC/DC generators to help keep our batteries charged. Why can’t the mfgs install the old type generators on the electric cars to keep the battery charged while you drive.
This must be too simple of an idea right? Seems like a good solution to me.
Warren Ellis
How about adding an engine to keep the batteries charged! Or replacing the electric motor with an engine and burning fuel to run the engine! Or a nuclear reactor, such as they use on modern submarines: you’d never have to stop to fill up again! !!!
Assuming you mean an IC engine running a generator, that is called a hybrid car, and there are lots of them on the road.
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This is exactly what a plug-in hybrid does, run the engine when the battery depletes. So it’s been done.
As for an ‘old type generator’, it has to be pretty high output for a car, and it has to meet all the pollution control regs, so it can’t just be an ‘old type generator’.
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