2024 Chevy Trax

[Desertnate]

maybe they redesigned with a plan for a future trim with electrification?

That's about the only way you might be able to save it. Even then it would need to full electric. For a plug in hybrid, it would work great until the batteries ran out. Then you'd be stuck with an even heavier (due to the batteries) and seriously under-powered vehicle.

Discussions like this makes me wonder what goes on in the corporate approvals to get a vehicle like this approved for production. There had to be prototypes which were driven. What was the design brief/performance windows for this vehicle?

 

[dgage]

That's about the only way you might be able to save it. Even then it would need to full electric. For a plug in hybrid, it would work great until the batteries ran out. Then you'd be stuck with an even heavier (due to the batteries) and seriously under-powered vehicle.

Discussions like this makes me wonder what goes on in the corporate approvals to get a vehicle like this approved for production. There had to be prototypes which were driven. What was the design brief/performance windows for this vehicle?

I think the future of most vehicles will be a true hybrid of electric/gas but the battery, engine, and motor weights currently block this true hybrid. If a vehicle could do 70-80 miles of full electric range with decent performance, then we’ll finally be in a good spot that addresses the majority of Americans daily driving habits. The gas engine would be a more efficient generator for long trips or for those that can’t charge like in apartment living. But as I said, the batteries will need to get lighter to be able to support that and that will happen soon enough with solid state batteries but like everything battery related, those take longer than we’d like.

 

[Desertnate]

I think the future of most vehicles will be a true hybrid of electric/gas but the battery, engine, and motor weights currently block this true hybrid. If a vehicle could do 70-80 miles of full electric range with decent performance, then we’ll finally be in a good spot that addresses the majority of Americans daily driving habits.

Agree.

Right now I think the average is around 40-ish miles. My neighbor has a BMW X5 plug in hybrid and he gets around 35~40 miles in warm weather. In warm weather he can just about make his daily commute, but the battery is totally drained when he gets home. Another person I know with a Chevy Volt hasn't bought gas for his car in months because his commute is only around 20 miles and the engire never kicks in.

I think hitting the 80~90 mile mark would give people a lot more range comfort and in cold weather, still have a usable range to commute and never use gas.

The gas engine would be a more efficient generator for long trips or for those that can’t charge like in apartment living. But as I said, the batteries will need to get lighter to be able to support that and that will happen soon enough with solid state batteries but like everything battery related, those take longer than we’d like.

I've always thought the hybrid system you describe was the way to go, but that solution seems to be dying away. The Chevy Volt and the BMW i3 and i4 all used something like that, but most of the automakers today have either gone to mild-hybrids that charge based on braking and coasting, plug in hybrid, or full electric.

I like the idea of the engine charging the battery to always have electric power on hand. Battery charging is never really any issue in most circumstances. In the case of my neighbor's X5, he loves the hybrid powertrain, but when he depletes the battery after a commute, it takes something like 10 hours to re-charge on a 110 outlet. Anything faster requires a 220/240 outlet which is similar to what's needed for a full electric.