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Does anybody know what the gasoline equivalent energy used in new vehicle construction is? I'm wondering at what point the cost of construction outweighs increased FE from a new car.

Hi WH:

___It is mostly a function of weight but the best example I can come up with is Toyota’s LCA for the Toyota Prius. Toyota prepares one of these for each of their vehicles but the Prius is the only one I have seen in the wild.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Prius_II_Green_Report.jpg

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Ah you beat me to it Wayne. I was looking for that very picture.

I did find this however. It looks like a pretty intresting read. Electric and Gasoline Vehicle Lifecycle Cost and Energy-Use Model (http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=itsdavis)

Curious that this document only looks at standard gasoline burning type emissions. I believe that the Prius contains an AC motor. Has anyone ever looked into the amount of ozone produced by these vehicles?

I know that when I was in college doing research, the Department of Energy was promoting the use of DC brushless motors for this reason. Is this currently a concern? Am I missing something? Also does any current hybrid use a DC motor?

All Hybrids I know of (particularly the Prius and HCH), use 3 phase AC motors.

Cheers;

MSantos

Hurricane, I'm confused by your question. A quick search on google for "ac motor ozone" brought up the following:

With AC currents, we can reverse field directions without having to use brushes. This is good news, because we can avoid the arcing, the ozone production and the ohmic loss of energy that brushes can entail. Further, because brushes make contact between moving surfaces, they wear out.

Additionally:

Like in the Insight, an ultra-thin, brushless DC motor/generator assists the internal combustion engine.

So ozone is created by brushes in the motors... and it looks like everything is brushless?

All Hybrids I know of (particularly the Prius and HCH), use 3 phase DC motors.

Cheers;

MSantos


According to the Toyota website they are AC???

http://www.toyota.com/prius/specs.html

From a quick google search it appears that permanent magnet is the issue. Permanent magnet motors are brushless? (It has been years since I have thought about this)

Sorry, my very clumsy mistake (its been a long day). I meant to type AC not DC. :o:o

Both vehicles hybrid systems include inverters that take the DC from the NiMH packs and turn it to AC to drive the 3 phase motors.

Cheers;

MSantos