Australia: Undergrad develops cheap kit for hybrid electric vehicle conversion

cyu@sh.itjust.worksbanned from community to Technology@lemmy.world – 156 points –
Australian student invents affordable electric-car-conversion kit
dezeen.com
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That looks very familiar. I saw something similar advertised in a Popular Mechanics. I don't remember whether it was an article or an ad, but it was there.

Ooh I would love to do this with my car and have a hybrid awd

It sounds like a hoax... How can such a small thing pull a 1,5 Tons vehicule ? And why is there so few data about this ? At the same time I really want to try this, please let this be real!

New EV supercars are using similar axial flux motors. I was hoping someone would come up with this because spinning the axles directly with wheel mounted motors seems like a much easier retrofit than replacing the engine and gear box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICTi2Z_X5Kw

If y'all remember that Kia Soul that got launched by a wheel, it’s a more dramatic example but a potential downside to what amounts to a spacer. It’s certainly a cool proof-of-concept but I can’t see it taking off since I doubt it’ll be as efficient as a factory hybrid and the upfront cost, labor, troubleshooting, explaining it to a mechanic will eat fuel savings.

Conversion to a hybrid seems more complicated, not less.

They're adding a bunch of weight to the rear wheels - I'm sure that's going to effect things? How does it trade-off with the ICE smoothly? How much per model customization is needed?

It's an interesting idea - but there are a lot of details being left out...

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