In a typical hybrid car (that’s not a plug-in hybrid), the batteries get charged from the engine running and from regenerative braking. They then power an electric motor to assist with locomotion. You might park your car in the garage with the batteries at 90% capacity, or 70%, or 50%, or whatever.
When you pull back out, the batteries are then still at that “whatever” level. Doesn’t really matter. So how does the car’s battery bank know or care whether it was topped off via shore power while parked in the garage? Why is having an onboard charger for shore power (or a plug for a wall charger) such a difficult engineering feat? Seems like it would just require the addition of a part that costs a few hundred bucks.
RVs and boats have a “house” battery bank that generally functions this way. Maybe it’s getting charged by the alternator, maybe by solar panels, maybe by shore power. But hybrid cars having a shore power option (i.e. PHEV) seems like a real premium option that is not easily built.
What am I missing? Why does the battery bank care where it got its charge from?
In: Technology
A major inefficiency in cars is the loss of kinetic energy when braking.
The point of non-plugin hybrids is to store this energy via regenerative breaking (and be able to give some added torque). So they only need batteries that can store the energy gotten from braking from ~70mph down to 0 (or conversely the energy required to get your car up to highway speeds).
Many non-plugin hybrids can barely make it 10 miles on the battery alone, and that’s in very ideal conditions (I.e slow acceleration, coasting down hills, no braking etc.) So you would only gain a maximum of ~10 miles of range by charging them up (if people even bother/remember).
Plug-in hybrids on the other hand are meant to be able to run off the battery for most city driving (~30+ miles), and use gas for long drives. So someone can go months without fueling up, if they’re only driving short distances (e.g. to work and back).
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