Quote:
Originally Posted by skids
The Prius that we had charged the battery anytime you took your foot off the gas (Hybrid). It did not charge the battery by plugging it into a receptacle. Charging that depends on a power cord are ridiculous IMHO because of the cumulative inefficiencies. It takes a lot of power from the source to charge it, being coal, natural gas or whatever.
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Regenerative charging technology has been a part of electric vehicle technology "almost from the beginning of the concept".
True electric powered vehicles "REQUIRE" recharging from an external source. That means "plugging them in". Only a minor part of battery charging is obtained while the vehicle is "coasting or decelerating" (not using battery power to move forward).
Hybrid electric powered vehicles have an "onboard generator/charger" that recharges the vehicle. Think a "diesel/electric locomotive that pulls hundreds of railroad cars on train tracks".... Most hybrid vehicles use a small gas engine to provide power to the wheels and that gas engine is augmented by electric motors which "aid in vehicle drive power. That gas engine has the "generator" also coupled to its output to recharge the batteries. There is MINOR regenerative charging during deceleration.
Plug-in hybrids use both an external source and an onboard gen/charger for power.
Bottom line, right now, there is no "customer available" electric vehicle or hybrid vehicle that does not use fossil fuel as a means to provide electric energy. Even the "plug in hybrids" rely on "consumer electric power" to recharge their battery banks. I don't know of any "consumer electric company" that does not use fossil fuels for at least a part of their power grid supply.
A "true fossil fuel free" transportation system is, at present "only a dream"... How soon, if ever, such a system can become a reality, even in a small transportation system is questionable. California may have mandated such a system by a specific date, but achieving it ???? Quite another consideration.