I have to chime in that this wiper voltage thing just makes me laugh. During the entire life of the car just how much energy do you think the wipers will use? Very very little even with current technology. In my Prius with my CAN-View I'm able to monitor total battery draw and see how it changes with various accessories...wipers hardly register as a blip.
If fanatics really want to get the most out of the battery it's easy enough to put Rain-X on the windshield and avoid wiper use altogether in almost all situations...my first set of wipers lasted 4 years on the prius b/c I was pretty good about keeping the windshield Rain-X'd and avoided using them.
Likewise, the stereo uses very very little even in the comparatively tiny Prius battery.
A/C & Heat are THE issues that have to be dealt with. If you impose limites on how well they heat and cool (ie. govenors on the max and min temps) on the fan speeds, and the efficiency of the system you're going to see a lot of complaints from consumers who like to always run their AC at "MAX" and keep the car as cold as an ice box and from those who like their car toasty enough for T-shirts in the summer. Probably some sort of "ECONO" mode will be necessary with a warning on the multi-display that turning off econo mode will shorten AER dramatically or something.
I also wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient, in the winter, to initially run the ICE for heat to warm the cabin (and battery?). Once the target temp was reached a smaller more efficient electric heater could be used to maintain the temp.
If fanatics really want to get the most out of the battery it's easy enough to put Rain-X on the windshield and avoid wiper use altogether in almost all situations...my first set of wipers lasted 4 years on the prius b/c I was pretty good about keeping the windshield Rain-X'd and avoided using them.
Likewise, the stereo uses very very little even in the comparatively tiny Prius battery.
A/C & Heat are THE issues that have to be dealt with. If you impose limites on how well they heat and cool (ie. govenors on the max and min temps) on the fan speeds, and the efficiency of the system you're going to see a lot of complaints from consumers who like to always run their AC at "MAX" and keep the car as cold as an ice box and from those who like their car toasty enough for T-shirts in the summer. Probably some sort of "ECONO" mode will be necessary with a warning on the multi-display that turning off econo mode will shorten AER dramatically or something.
I also wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient, in the winter, to initially run the ICE for heat to warm the cabin (and battery?). Once the target temp was reached a smaller more efficient electric heater could be used to maintain the temp.
