TDI Pickup EREV Idea

storx

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Location
Earth!!
TDI
2009 Jetta CR140, 2010 Corvette Z06
Hello all,

Some of you might have known me from my crazy days of modding my tdi's over the years, but i no longer own an tdi as of about a year ago. I have since then been daily driving an Chevy Volt that has really made an impact on me since the torque of the electric motor in sport mode reminds me a lot of my tdi days and i have been really wishing i had a pickup truck in my life since i now am located in Florida and using a truck to haul around toys is very beneficial.... so i got to thinking... maybe i could pick up a cheap like 1970's chevy silverado since older pickups are soooo much lighter than modern ones once you minus out the engine and tranny weight... and just install an reliable tdi alh motor in it transverse coupled to like a 40kw electric motor for electric generation, then couple a 100+kw electric motor to the rear axle for drive power similar to how the chevy volt works...

My 2013 Chevy Volt according to the last scale i had it on with nothing in the trunk sat just shy of 4,000lbs empty, and since people have been using them to tow around small toys like jet ski's and motorcycles safely without any issues with the 111kw drivetrain, i can imagine a v8/tranny removed pickup could easily be built far less in weight than 4,000lbs...

I was curious what input you guys could place on this idea, the tdi gets amazing mpg when ran at very low rpms, so i think a loaded tdi could easily turn a 40kw power gen motor at like 1200rpms roughly with the aid of the turbo for very nice long distance mpg

*I know i left out the batteries in the above statements, but i am not worried about them right now, there is a guy over on the electric motorcycle forums who built an reverse trike that you sit in like the polaris slingshot but instead of 2 people he built his smaller with just a sitting compartment of 1 person, this rear wheel is driven by an 25kw continous, 50kw peak DC motor for propulsion, he was not sure what batteries to use, so he started to build his side cart add on trailer he wanted to use for long distance driving, so he used an $99 dollar 6.5hp harbor freight special as the test engine coupled to an 12kw continous, 28kw peak dc motor and just to test things out, he attached the range extender side cart to his motorcycle and without using batteries at all he was able to generate enough energy from the 2nd motor to input it directly into the motor controller to power the drive motor up to highway speeds reliably when the gas motor was adjusted to a set rpm range.... so he plans to add batteries as he can afford them, so he used the bare minimum amount of batteries to get the motorcycle legalized and tagged so he can drive it on the street and he is using his side cart range extender as his primary means of propulsion for now tell he gets the money for the batteries he wants to use to finish the bike with a EV range..
 
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mcneil

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Location
Pasadena, CA
TDI
2010 Golf TDI 4dr, 2001 Jetta TDI, Jeep TDI project
When Carnegie Mellon built Crusher they used a VW 1.9 TDI as a generator. 6 direct drive electric motors, one at each wheel, some batteries.
Marshalls Industrials in the UK sells bellhousings for TDIs that fit gen heads. I think SAE 6 patterns.
 

evguy1

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Location
Erington, BC, Canada
TDI
2000 Jeep Cherokee TDI, 2008 Jeep JKU TDI
I suppose the big question is how rich are you? ;>)
We have just started to get into the TDI conversion business but for the last 25 years we have been building electric vehicles and conversion parts. http://www.canev.com/
What you are asking is more complicated then it appears and VERY expensive.
Possible yes, so is sending a bunch of people to Mars, apparently.

Might be easier to put a smaller electric motor in the driveshaft for added torque and then a TDI as the main drive motor.
The electric would give you regen braking and the added power.
Make it a plug in and get even better mileage.
 

mcneil

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Location
Pasadena, CA
TDI
2010 Golf TDI 4dr, 2001 Jetta TDI, Jeep TDI project
Surprisingly, Crusher wasn't NASA-expensive. It was built on a DARPA grant but it wasn't a large one, and the research team saved most of the budget for the autonomous systems.
Marshall's charges about $400 for a bellhousing, may be better now with the exchange rates where they are. The Crusher team also had plenty of space to work with; their engine compartment was about 6' long.

What I'm wondering is how you'd control the generator on the TDI?
 
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