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The idea is to design a lightweight purpose-built hybrid vehicle. Conversions always seem to come in at 3000 lbs and up, which makes the battery cost higher and requires a relatively large
motor for decent performance. Lithium ion batteries will be used, and the drive will be via a single AC motor. Space will be allocated for a small (20 hp) gasoline engine to drive an alternator
which will provide continuous cruising power for long trips. So when commuting to work it will operate as a pure electric vehicle, requiring no gasoline at all. Whenever a trip is over 50 miles,
the gasoline provides the cruising power. This is referred to as a "series hybrid". The proposed Chevy Volt is a series hybrid, while the Toyota Prius is a parallel hybrid (gas and electric drives
operate in parallel to drive the wheels).
This design will be a form of 3 wheeled vehicle. The reason for three wheels was to simplify power transmission to the road and to potentially reduce weight due to a simplified suspension.
The implementation actually uses a pair of rear wheels connected together in a single assembly, with the drive pulley between the two wheels. The wheel spacing is a compromise to prevent
"wheel hop" and scuffing when turning, since there is no differential.
The frame is a custom design fabricated mainly from 1" square steel tubing. As a form of "poor man's CAD" I built a few frames to scale from precision cut balsa wood sticks. By flexing the
model in various ways, I could visualize it's weak points and literally "feel" how cross braces stiffened it. The body will be fiberglass-over-foam composite sandwich construction. The present
plan is to use polystyrene foam from the local lumberyard or Home Depot, with epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth sandwiching it. Ideally I'd use polyester resin and polyurethane foam, but the
plain polyurethane foam is hard to find locally. Unfortunately, the lower cost and readily available polyester resin will dissolve polystyrene foam.
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