If Your Electric Car Runs Out of Power on the Highway ...

[Homer J Simpson]

Not a hybrid.

V6 is for charging only.

[EEVblog]

[EEVblog]

So preppers, gas is better for short term emergencies. But unless you operate your own wells and refineries an electric car and solar cells will keep you mobile longer than scavenged gas

I always pondered which car I would take if SHTF, the IONIQ with my 3kW battery and solar panels, or the ICE (assuming both had full charge/tank). I think I'd take the IONIQ even though it has half the range and it would take forever to charge back up. But at least it would charge back up given enough time.

[nctnico]

What if there's a grid blackout and you have an emergency?

That is the Zombie Apocalypse. A lot of good playbooks written for that case.

As people discover, petrol stations (mostly) rely on the grid for pumping and/or selling fuel. So either way so either way its supply your own or go without.

Not really. You can always stick a hand pump into the storage tank and pump the fuel up into your car by hand. What you'll need most is cash to pay for the gas.

But where can you get the gas needed to drive to a store where you can get a hand pump?

Never heard of a bicycle???

[coppice]

What if there's a grid blackout and you have an emergency?

That is the Zombie Apocalypse. A lot of good playbooks written for that case.

As people discover, petrol stations (mostly) rely on the grid for pumping and/or selling fuel. So either way so either way its supply your own or go without.

Not really. You can always stick a hand pump into the storage tank and pump the fuel up into your car by hand. What you'll need most is cash to pay for the gas.

But where can you get the gas needed to drive to a store where you can get a hand pump?

Never heard of a bicycle???

Do they store bicycles at gas stations ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

[xrunner]

Dave you don't need the gas generator on that trailer ^^^ ! All you gotta do is attach the generator to the wheels of the trailer. The car pulling it can then have power from the generator as it is turned by the trailer wheels and re-charge it's own battery!

 

[nctnico]

What if there's a grid blackout and you have an emergency?

That is the Zombie Apocalypse. A lot of good playbooks written for that case.

As people discover, petrol stations (mostly) rely on the grid for pumping and/or selling fuel. So either way so either way its supply your own or go without.

Not really. You can always stick a hand pump into the storage tank and pump the fuel up into your car by hand. What you'll need most is cash to pay for the gas.

But where can you get the gas needed to drive to a store where you can get a hand pump?

Never heard of a bicycle???

Do they store bicycles at gas stations ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

No, the bicycle is in your shed. But in case of the world going to shit, you'll be better off with a bicycle or a donkey / horse anyway. Forget about using cars.

[themadhippy]

Maybe a wire could be installed above every road,then when your ev runs out of fuel you extend a pole with some sort of pick up on the end from your vehicle to make contact with the ovehead wire that then refuels your car,of course you'd  another contact from the car to ground  complete the circuit,maybe conductive rubber tyres would work for that.

[coppice]

What if there's a grid blackout and you have an emergency?

That is the Zombie Apocalypse. A lot of good playbooks written for that case.

As people discover, petrol stations (mostly) rely on the grid for pumping and/or selling fuel. So either way so either way its supply your own or go without.

Not really. You can always stick a hand pump into the storage tank and pump the fuel up into your car by hand. What you'll need most is cash to pay for the gas.

But where can you get the gas needed to drive to a store where you can get a hand pump?

Never heard of a bicycle???

Do they store bicycles at gas stations ready for the Zombie Apocalypse?

No, the bicycle is in your shed. But in case of the world going to shit, you'll be better off with a bicycle or a donkey / horse anyway. Forget about using cars.

I don't have a shed. Even if I did, I might be miles away from my home when the Zombie Apocalypse strikes. I imagine my main urge to get gas after the Apocalypse would be to get back to my family.

[coppice]

Maybe a wire could be installed above every road,then when your ev runs out of fuel you extend a pole with some sort of pick up on the end from your vehicle to make contact with the ovehead wire that then refuels your car,of course you'd  another contact from the car to ground  complete the circuit,maybe conductive rubber tyres would work for that.

I saw pictures of a stretch of test road, probably in Germany, where they have put a railway style catenary above the highway, and made some electric trucks to use it. I assume they are battery electric, so they can could charge on the fast road, and get around local areas by battery.

[Andy Chee]

Not a hybrid.

V6 is for charging only.

There are two different styles of hybrid topologies, series and parallel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle_drivetrain

Toyota Prius is a parallel hybrid.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle_drivetrain#/media/File:Hybridpar.svg
Chevy Volt is a series hybrid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vehicle_drivetrain#/media/File:Hybridpeak.svg

Ramcharger appears to be a series hybrid, with the facility for plug-in charging (i.e. short trips on battery only with regular mains charging topup, may not require use of the V6).  Ramcharger has a 92kWh battery pack and mains charger (up to 400V DC fast charge)

[.RC.]

Very simple and easy: call for a tow with your cell phone and relax.

NO, you plug your phone into the car and charge the car.

[pickle9000]

I suppose gas is harder to make. Ethanol is possible but time consuming. Electrical power can be made mechanically or with solar. 

[Siwastaja]

Not really. You can always stick a hand pump into the storage tank and pump the fuel up into your car by hand. What you'll need most is cash to pay for the gas.

Yes you can; then you can use that hand-pumped fuel to run a genset. What people don't realize is how much we rely on reliable grid. After a blackout longer than a few hours, our societies basically collapse to stone age. This is also the reason why it does simply not happen unless we are dealing with an actual freaking war: grid is repaired and brought back online within hours, always, leaving small localized outages which do not prevent getting gas, or charging an EV.

[pickle9000]

Fuel reserves would be gone in no time. Alcohol and toilet paper would probably make good currency.

[Andy Chee]

Society running out of power is frightening.

But a personal car running out of power is merely an inconvenience to yourself (you have yourself to blame for not planning ahead).

[Smokey]

Build a range extender

There is another one now where this guy swapped in a diesel engine... 

I'm pretty sure this is bullshit, and he's just driving around a normal tesla with an engine running in the back doing absolutely nothing useful (except getting youtube views).  They make zero mention of how this engine is putting energy into the car.  It's not mechanically coupled to the wheels.  And they don't have any electronics to boost a generators voltage up to pack voltage (400V) to charge the pack.  I'm pretty sure the Tesla BMS would lose its shit if it detected the battery charging while the vehicle was moving anyway. 

[pickle9000]

Society running out of power is frightening.

But a personal car running out of power is merely an inconvenience to yourself (you have yourself to blame for not planning ahead).

An EV aka battery pack, a means of charging it means a shop with tools and electronics that can save your life, that means a great deal.

[Andy Chee]

Build a range extender

There is another one now where this guy swapped in a diesel engine... 

I'm pretty sure this is bullshit, and he's just driving around a normal tesla with an engine running in the back doing absolutely nothing useful (except getting youtube views).  They make zero mention of how this engine is putting energy into the car.  It's not mechanically coupled to the wheels.  And they don't have any electronics to boost a generators voltage up to pack voltage (400V) to charge the pack.  I'm pretty sure the Tesla BMS would lose its shit if it detected the battery charging while the vehicle was moving anyway.

You don't need 400V to charge the pack, you only need household 240V.

I agree somewhat about the Tesla computer preventing simultaneous charging and movement, I realise that Tesla hackers have done all sorts of weird system bypasses, so charging whilst moving is not out of the realm of possibilities.

[.RC.]

You be like this digger and just have your own electric power source to follow you around on your travels.

[EPAIII]

They had that in my home town. Actually they still do. They call them street cars.



The St Charles line ran directly in front of my university and I rode them often to and from school. Probably been in the one in the photo many times. And these electric street cars were not new back in the 1950s. In fact they had been around NO for decades even then.

New Orleans was way ahead of the times. Not only did they have electric street cars back in the 1950s but also ELECTRIC busses. I often rode on them too. Like the street cars, they got the electricity from a pair of lines that ran overhead. The street cars used the metal tracks for the return circuit and you could see sparks if there were leaves on the tracks. But the electric busses needed twin overhead lines. One of the electric bus lines ran near my grandparent's home and I rode them often going to and from there. The line pictured below ran in front of my then future wife's house. Again the photo is from the 1950s.



A regular bus route is a great place for an electric vehicle back then. So I must wonder, if they had them and electric was so great, why didn't they completely take over? I suspect those electric busses are now all replaced with gas or diesel powered ones. If electric powered is so good, then WHY? A thinking man must wonder.

Maybe a wire could be installed above every road,then when your ev runs out of fuel you extend a pole with some sort of pick up on the end from your vehicle to make contact with the ovehead wire that then refuels your car,of course you'd  another contact from the car to ground  complete the circuit,maybe conductive rubber tyres would work for that.

[Andy Chee]

Maybe a wire could be installed above every road,then when your ev runs out of fuel you extend a pole with some sort of pick up on the end from your vehicle to make contact with the ovehead wire that then refuels your car,of course you'd  another contact from the car to ground  complete the circuit,maybe conductive rubber tyres would work for that.

In the 1993 movie flop "Super Mario Bros", in an alternate dimension where dinosaurs evolved to higher cognitive beings, and did not become extinct to become fossil fuels, all vehicles are EV and charged by overhead wires:

[EPAIII]

As for conductive rubber tires working for the return path, I think that neither concrete nor asphalt is naturally conductive. You would need to replace a lot of both of them with conductive versions. That's gonna be a lot of $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ or euros or whatever currency you want to use.

Electric trains and the street cars I showed above run on steel rails, which are conductors. And those conductive rails cost absolutely nothing extra.

[Andy Chee]

Electric trains and the street cars I showed above run on steel rails, which are conductors. And those conductive rails cost absolutely nothing extra.

For a rubber wheeled vehicle, you can have the return current returning back to a second overhead wire, though, it obviously presents a challenge in aligning the pantograph with the two wires.

[.RC.]

What people don't realize is how much we rely on reliable grid. After a blackout longer than a few hours, our societies basically collapse to stone age.

Just went 23 hours of no mains electricity.  Then 23 hours later it is off again and have the generator running.

But you are right.   Some years back a cyclone went through and the local city was mostly without power for a few days.  A new term came about.  Generator rage.   People who did not have one were raging over the noise of those that did.  Then there were the fuel restrictions and food restrictions.  It was interesting how most people helped one another there was a minority who were just arseholes.  If you want society to hold together in a rough time, then you need to concentrate on providing hope so people can see a way out.  Once that is gone, watch society turn on itself as tribes get formed.  Then a man named Max becomes the only beacon of hope for many.