Edmund Storms wrote:
A point you all seem to miss is that the ICE must be large enough to move the car at normal speeds, including up hills when the batteries are dead, in addition, it needs to have some extra power to charge the battery at that time.
Well, it would not need to recharge while going uphill. You can leave the batteries flat for a while.
In the Volt, I believe electric motor drives the wheels at all times, and the ICE connects only to the batteries. So if the batteries are flat and you are going up a steep hill at a high speed, my guess is the ICE works as hard as it can and the batteries stay flat.
When the Prius batteries are low, the car is sluggish on steep hills and the engine makes more noise than usual, but I have never had trouble keeping up with other cars at highway speeds in the Carolinas and Georgia where people drive ridiculously fast (like 85 mph in a 70 mph zone). There is a very steep, long section of highway on Rt. 77 north to Rt. 80 (North Carolina to Virginia) that I have often driven, without difficulty.
- Jed
