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Why no ice/gen only cars?

5915 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Tom, 
imflyn
If the volt is predicted to get 50 mpg when operating in it's range extender mode, why don't we have more vehicles made like that without the battery aspect? Locomotives have been doing it for a long time. This is OLD technology, but was never implemented into cars. Why don't we have cars that are purely electric drive with an ice/gen combo to power the whole thing. Weight and cost would be reduced with no battery to muck around with. I wondered about this several years ago. Most hybrids use the engine as part of the drivetrain and a motor to suplement it, correct?
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Tom
The other part of the secret is poor performance

"I have a little secret for you. Don't repeat it too loudly because the other posters will run me out of town. Using the Volt's ICE and hooking it up to a standard transmission to the Volt's wheels would give you better mileage on the highway then going from the ICE to the gen-set to the electric motor (assuming no battery - weigh of both cars are identical)."

Yes, but it would have miniscule power and torque and would probably need a transmission to keep from stalling out - very poor performance.
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