Electric vehicles with small batteries and high-efficiency on-board electricity production

Abstract

Data of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), that includes both traditional hybrids electric vehicles (HEV) with the additional opportunity to recharge the battery by plugging into an electric outlet such as the Toyota Prius Prime, and battery electric vehicles (BEV) with range extender such as the BMW i3 REx, demonstrate the need of a less constrained research and development to optimize the design of electric vehicles with range extender for better energy economy and range. BEV with smaller, rather than larger, batteries, and onboard high-efficiency electricity production, are superior economically and environmentally, until the times the electricity production will be overwhelming renewable, there will be a widespread recharging infrastructure, materials to produce the batteries will be abundant and ethically sourced, and the disposal of the batteries will be properly addressed. A hypothetical BMW i3 with a 30 Ah battery pack, and a high-efficiency ICE, may have an MPGe (miles-per-gallon equivalent) working electric of 127 miles, a MPGe between 62 and 127 while sharing the energy supply, and a MPGe of 62 only using the gasoline energy supply.