| Series Hybrids | |
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| Description | Series hybrids use a single-speed engine to power an alternator used to supply electricity to the electric motor directly or via the battery. With a Chorus drive, these systems can use a small radiator (just for the highly efficient single-speed engine) and avoid the need for a transmission. |
| Benefits | The benefits of series hybrids include tremendous simplicity, even when compared to a conventional vehicle. This means lower design costs, easier manufacturing and easier servicing. They also offer fuel efficiency that can rival any technology but pure electrics. |
| Drawbacks & Challenges | The drawbacks of series hybrids include the need for larger batteries than a conventional vehicle. In addition, series hybrids ready to enter the mainstream do not exist due to constraints Chorus Meshcon can mitigate. |
| How Chorus Can Help | Chorus can make series hybrids a reality. We can offer drive systems with: large amounts of torque in a tiny package, the stamina to propel the car in any operating conditions, low cost (especially through the avoidance of rare-earths), and simplicity (by removing the need for transmissions or specialized cooling). And while any vehicle would benefit from major advances in battery technology, Chorus Meshcon series hybrids do not require them to be serious contenders in the marketplace. |
| Parallel Hybrid | |
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| Description | The parallel hybrid acknowledges the limitations of battery technology, and uses a smaller battery while still taking advantage of the energy density of traditional fossil fuels. In this approach, the engine and electric drive are matched, so that the mechanical power provided to the wheels is typically an admixture between the two.
The parallel hybrid, however, suffers from still having a mechanical drivetrain, and with the numerous difficulties of engineering an internal combustion engine and electric motor to work as one. |
| Benefits | The benefits of parallel hybrids include somewhat greater efficiencies that existing vehicles. Like all hybrids these can take advantage of regenerative braking. |
| Drawbacks | The drawbacks of parallel hybrids include design complexity in trying to twin two very different motor types and take advantage of their relative strengths. In addition, these vehicles would require a transmission (even with Meshcon). |
| How Chorus Can Help | Chorus can enable the electric motor to be the main motive force for the vehicle under all conditions. It can also raise efficiencies at low speeds. However, the benefits of this are limited by the fundamental limitations of this design. |
| Dual Hybrids | |
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| Description | The dual source hybrid eschews coupling the engine and electric motor to the same drivetrain. Instead, both are available as needed to power the drivetrain with a power splitter between them.
This solution is complex, but it works very well- the Toyota Prius is the prime example. These vehicles can be powered by either the internal combustion engine or the electric motor, and the internal combustion engine can serve double duty by powering a battery to drive the electric motor. |
| Benefits | The benefits of dual hybrids include increased fuel efficiency (particularly in stop-and-go traffic) and more reasonable battery sizes and costs. |
| Drawbacks & Challenges | Drawbacks include high complexity, an inability of the main electric motor to drive the vehicle at constant highway speeds (due to overheating) and, as a related challenge, the need to actively cool the electric motor and electronics. The result is a vehicle that costs significantly more to manufacture while delivering fuel efficiency gains that are insufficient to attract most consumers.
In addition, preserving the mechanical drivetrain adds additional cost and inefficiency, and the variable speed engine cannot be tuned for optimum efficiency. |
| How Chorus Can Help | Chorus can improve dual hybrid vehicles in several ways. We can provide an electric motor that can propel the car across the entire operating profile. Chorus can also simplify the system by removing the need for specialized cooling solutions. |
| Pure Electric | |
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| Description | Pure electric vehicles, as diagrammed above, power electric motors from batteries. There is no other motive force or power source on the vehicle. |
| Benefits | The benefits of pure electric vehicles include simplicity and tremendous fuel efficiency. Like all hybrids they can also take advantage of regenerative braking. |
| Drawbacks & Challenges | The main drawbacks of electric vehicles are related to batteries. Batteries don't contain as much energy as gasoline or diesel with the same volume and weight. Batteries are also expensive, and often must be independently cooled. Electric cars consequently suffer from having a limited range, limited battery lifetime, and a high cost that is not competitive with the non-electric car.
Barring a profound breakthrough in battery technology, pure electric cars are not going to replace non-electric cars. |
| How Chorus Can Help | Chorus can not solve the battery problems with these vehicles, but Chorus Meshcon offers significant power density and efficiency improvements over the 3-phase motors currently in use. Permanent magnet machines are not viable for pure electric cars because of the cooling problems.
In addition, Chorus Meshcon offers high efficiencies at low-torques - increasing the range and/or reducing the battery-size requirements of existing solutions. |
| Conventional Vehicles | |
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| Description | Conventional internal combustion engines are the vehicle of choice for the vast majority of car and truck drivers. They are very mature and well understood. |
| Benefits | Conventional internal combustion engines offer a broad spectrum of benefits including low component costs and vehicles that are relatively simple to design, build and maintain. These benefits are why conventional vehicles retain the lion's share of the marketplace. |
| Drawbacks & Challenges | Requiring an engine to perform across a wide speed and power range reduces mileage and increases emissions. Additionally, a transmission (including multiple gears, the systems needed to switch between them, the mechanical drivetrain, and the differential) adds unavoidable cost, weight, and volume to any design. Finally, these vehicles rely only on liquid fuels and can not 'plug in.'
In summary, non-electric cars are expensive to operate because of their relatively poor mileage, and it is widely recognized that this technology must undergo extensive changes in order to be viable in the future. |
| How Chorus Can Help | Using Meshcon's powerful ability to fulfill both high-speed low-torque and low-speed high-torque requirements, Chorus can add the capabilities of a starter to an existing inverter-driven alternator at no additional cost. The benefits of this approach include reducing component cost and facilitating start-stop capability - eliminating engine use when the vehicle is not in motion. |
| Series Hybrids | |
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| Description | Series hybrids use a single-speed engine to power an alternator used to supply electricity to the electric motor directly or via the battery. With a Chorus drive, these systems can use a small radiator (just for the highly efficient single-speed engine) and avoid the need for a transmission. |
| Benefits | The benefits of series hybrids include tremendous simplicity, even when compared to a conventional vehicle. This means lower design costs, easier manufacturing and easier servicing. They also offer fuel efficiency that can rival any technology but pure electrics. |
| Drawbacks & Challenges | The drawbacks of series hybrids include the need for larger batteries than a conventional vehicle. In addition, series hybrids ready to enter the mainstream do not exist due to constraints Chorus Meshcon can mitigate. |
| How Chorus Can Help | Chorus can make series hybrids a reality. We can offer drive systems with: large amounts of torque in a tiny package, the stamina to propel the car in any operating conditions, low cost (especially through the avoidance of rare-earths), and simplicity (by removing the need for transmissions or specialized cooling). And while any vehicle would benefit from major advances in battery technology, Chorus Meshcon series hybrids do not require them to be serious contenders in the marketplace. |