Electric vehicle

[Dave Williams]

-> No, No, No, you're not getting it.  We're trying to eliminate all the
-> possible losses that electric vehicles incur, thus more efficient,
-> thus less battery power required.  That's why the motors in the wheel
-> hubs.

 Dr. Porsche's first production design, long before he started his car
company, was a truck for some company whose name escapes me for the
moment... it used electric motors in the hubs.  Stayed in production
for quite a while as I recall.

 Unfortunately, generators and motors are not efficient enough to
make a hybrid's aggregate efficiency much better than a standard IC
engine/trans/diff arrangement.  With a constant speed turbine or Diesel
you could probably break even, but why go through all that weight and
complexity when you could just use a Rankine cycle powerplant and
expanders where needed?  (steam, that is...)