• ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    7 days ago

    Germany during WWII did something kind of like this. They modified some of their cars to run on wood gas and they would tow a wood stove on a trailer that generated the gas, with an attached hose that would feed it into the engine. A sensible plan when your only source of oil is Romania and all of your horses have been requisitioned by the army for its “blitzkrieg”.

      • antimidas@sopuli.xyz
        2·
        6 days ago

        They’re an interesting thing to say the least. Finland had a lot of wood gas generators in use during WWII as what limited petrol we had went towards the war effort. Other substitute fuels were used a lot as well, e.g. pine turpentine which we had a lot of as it’s a side product of refining wood into pulp.

        It’s a relatively efficient system, and burns quite cleanly in the engine (as soot and other contaminants are filtered out by the generator). Though they’re quite dangerous, since wood gas is mainly pure carbon monoxide. The amounts they produce are so high that leaks or topping up the generator can cause carbon monoxide poisoning even when outside. In Finnish we actually call the generator häkäpönttö, which in English would be a carbon monoxide can (häkä colloquial Finnish for carbon monoxide, pönttö a colloquial Finnish word meaning a can, container, carton or someone dumb in a usually non-derogatory way – closest equivalent in English would be dummy).

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
          2·
          6 days ago

          Yeah that’s actually how I googled it. Couldn’t for the life of me get “wood stove generator” into my head but “häkäpönttö” is easy.

          And I’d agree that, like many Finnish words, it doesn’t properly translate. A pönttö would be closer to a barrel, I’d say, than a can. A can sort of implies a smaller one. Although yes, “garbage can” would be a can as well and nearly on a similar scale as a häkäpönttö.

          It’s sometimes crazy hard explaining all the implications of a given word. You know them but listing them would be hard.

          But yeah especially with how much forests and forestry we have, it was a very good solution in WWII. We needed the proper petrol for all those tanks we stole from the Ruskis. We started the war with genuinely a few old Pösö tanks from WWI and stole most of what we had by the end of the war. (That’s Peugeot for non-Finns haha)

          • antimidas@sopuli.xyz
            2·
            6 days ago

            Good point with the barrel, truth is probably somewhere between the barrel and a can. After all, there’s also pönttö, both vessan- and linnun-, which again are on the smaller side. I kinda love how much nuance and double meanings there are in especially the spoken language.

            True meaning can only be grasped with enough exposure.

            Didn’t we also have some Vickers six-tonners at the start? Next to useless by then but probably could penetrate at least a BT-5.

            Edit: now that I think of it, a canister probably fits quite well between the sizes of can and barrel. But to me it would then be a closed container, which a pönttö doesn’t necessarily have to be.

            • Dasus@lemmy.world
              2·
              6 days ago

              Ture, “bird cans” aren’t especially large. But they’re not like beer cans. You could never really say “annappa se kaljapönttö” unless you were talking about a barrel or a small bucket of beer.

              Didn’t we also have some Vickers six-tonners at the start?

              If you say so, alls I remembers is one of the tanks we stole from Russia is still being prominently displayed in the Häme Regiment base in Lahti… checks on his facts Fuck, I’m too old for this shit. The Häme Regiment (HämR) was a regiment that was shut down in 2014. I mean, it was about time. But I’m still curious as to what happened to the tank I was talking about… Well, say what you want about LLM’s (and they do sort of threaten a lot of society but) but it was pretty good in searching for info like this. I explained to Gemini where I did my service and asked about the tank.

              ​Where is it now? After the Häme Regiment was disbanded in 2014, most of the heavy historical equipment was moved. That T-34 was relocated to the Parola Armour Museum (Panssarimuseo) to ensure it was preserved and maintained, as the Hennala site transitioned into a residential and civilian area.

              So yeah. Anyway, my point was that I just remember reading the sign saying how many we took from the Soviets. And also our lieutenants and whatnot military fanatics giving us some history on them. Then I couldn’t remember the number years after so I googled it and saw we only had some puny WWI tanks before. Honestly, I don’t even know what a Vickers six-ton is, but I’m guessing British…? (Because I do know what a Vickers gun is) Checking.

              Yah. Thanks for the info.

              Finland – used 33 tanks since 1938 (including an evaluation tank). They were bought unarmed, without optics and radios. Some were armed with short-barreled 37 mm Puteaux guns and later equipped with 37 mm Bofors anti-tank guns as their main gun with a coaxial turret MG and a “tank SMG” in bow plate. They were used in the Winter War with the USSR. After this war, the Finns rearmed Mark E tanks with captured Soviet long 45 mm guns and DT MGs as used in the T-26. The Finns designated the rebuilt Vickers tanks logically as: T-26Es. They were used in combat from 1941 to 1944 and remained in service as training tanks until 1959.

              Oh yeah.

              So about half and half apparently:

              Before the Winter War (Nov 1939), Finland’s tank forces were minimal, consisting mainly of 32-34 obsolete Renault FT-17 light tanks (acquired 1919) and about 30-32 recently purchased Vickers 6-ton light tanks, which were still being fitted with armament. They had no medium or heavy tanks

              So we had like 60 light tanks. By the end of the war we had captured and destroyed, quite a few.

              Oh yeah and about the languages, yeah, if you speak both Finnish and English fluently, it’s awesome what weird shit you can combine because of the different natures of the languages. My friends used to think me a bit pretentious for inserting English phrases or words into Finnish, but that was like 10+ years ago. Nowadays most speak Finglish pretty fluently and it doesn’t matter if you add a bit of London while completely speaking Finnish, as long as you’re not doing it just to be pretentious, but because the word/phrase suits better (or you’ve just forgotten the Finnish word, which happens to me quite a bit nowadays.)

  • GenosseFlosse@feddit.org
    151·
    7 days ago

    Not buying it: How would you charge (generator) and discharge (motor) the car at the same time? The electronics and software is designed to only charge the battery when parked. My car won’t even shift into gear if it’s plugged in.

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      6·
      7 days ago

      I mean, this one is fake, but there is a company creating haluers that do pretty much this. Have a small battery they recharge with a generator. According to them, a generator is a lot more efficient and enviromentaly friendly compared to normal engine, since it runs at constant rpm.

      • LordKitsuna@lemmy.world
        4·
        7 days ago

        Actually, the constant RPM ones are less efficient, the inverter generators that are able to vary with the load that are more efficient. But yes, they are better at turning the fuel into usable power. Traditional ice engines lose something like 40% of the power made just in Losses from gearing transmission axel etc. So while it may seem silly technically using a generator to charge an EV is more efficient

          • GooeyGlob@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Correct, parent should have said EREX (electric, range extended) or EREV, but not PHEV.

            The Fisker Karma and BMW i3 (well some of them) were this type of EV. My wife had an i3 Rex and loved it, though it irritatingly had only a 2 gallon gas tank.

            Mazda was working on one but it never came out in the US. Supposedly the Scout EV will have a Rex, that would be nice.

  • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
    9·
    6 days ago

    As funny as this is… Dodge released a fully electric truck that contains a V6 generator. Goes 690 miles one trip and can pull 14,000lbs.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        Honestly given how consistent the rest of the image is on all of the things which would not be moving, minor errors with people walking on the street almost more looks like phone camera processing/stitching errors. Especially with how many phone cameras now take a burst of photos and stitch them together to make a higher quality photo

      • Honytawk@feddit.nl
        21·
        6 days ago

        There is nothing wrong with the people on the sidewalk. Only one has a bit of a weird turn, but nothing that can’t be explained by movement.

        No, it is most likely a real picture, but with only the trailer added through AI. Everything else seems to be correct, but the lettering and number plates are off.

    • captain_oni@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      “Refaccionaria” is just “auto parts shop” in Mexican Spanish.

      I’m inclined to say that this is not AI since it got that word correctly. And the other text as well.

  • azureskypirate@lemmy.zip
    11·
    7 days ago

    Refraccionera = repair shop, mexican dialect

    Sign with E in red cancel mark is No Estiocionar = No parking

    Oxxo = Convience store common in Latin america

    Street sign says Avenida Sur = South Avenue

    It’s probably not AI, güey. No mames

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    6·
    6 days ago

    This is a good idea, though.

    Piston engines are way, way, way more efficient (and cheaper to make) when optimized for one RPM and a static load (like a generator). They can be tiny if running at 100% throttle all the time; a few horsepower is enough. Excluding the transmission saves weight/cost, and a generator for a few horsepower isn’t that big.

    Yeah, you get electrical loss, but everything else more than makes up for it.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
        1·
        5 days ago

        I suspect “tiny battery+generator” EVs aren’t a thing in the US because:

        • It doesn’t sound or drive like an ICE car. It still has a battery, so gets all that range/durability “anxiety” associated with being an EV.

        • It’s associated with all the issues of ICE-based hybrids.

        • It’s not “all-electric,” not quiet, so it’s not percieved as a luxury car like pure EVs generally are.

        • The cars that do implement this tend to be smaller, so not marketable here in the US, apparently.

        • Factories are still tooled to make ICE cars en masse, not EV drivetrains.

        In other words, it’s all perception and marketing. And I think, sadly, it’s true: people wouldn’t buy them here in the US.

        You do see them outside the US though.

    • Martineski@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      For over a year there’s been a pinned post requesting someone to take over the community with no one willing to mod. If you actually want to see the change then tell me and I will tranfer the community rights to you. Though I’d recommend to not act retroactively and make a post with new rules moving forward.

  • DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
    3·
    6 days ago

    I ~~understand this is in Brazil (see the stores) and they have few charging places. ~~ Edit: not Brazil it’s Mexico. Not sure about EV infrastructure there.

    • wavebeam@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 days ago

      It’s not just Mexico, this looks a lot like Mexicali, Baja California. It’s right on the border of California and a lot of locals there frequently hop back on forth over the border. Some live in Mexicali and work in Calexico or El Centro, some live and work in the US but cross regularly for family.

      Their infrastructure is spotty, but largely assembled to be compatible with the lives of these border crossers in mind, so there’s definitely some EV infra, but not a lot.

    • bazzett@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      6 days ago

      Nope, it’s in Mexico. I can’t say what the situation is with charging stations, tho, since I don’t own an EV.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
    4·
    7 days ago

    There is a huge missed opportunity of having modular battery packs that you can load into EVs.

    You don’t need a huge battery for everyday, in fact it makes your drive less efficient.

    What if there were standards and you could go to a gas station and rent some packs. Put them in the trunk (there would be slots and/or standard connectors), and then drive off.

    Once road trip is over you return the packs (or you could buy instead of rent).

    You can also just swap the packs in gas stations with fully charged equivalent, making long trips more flexible.

    I think china did something like that with scooters.

    • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      8·
      7 days ago

      There were attempts, but suvh a system just doesn’t work reliably. The pack has to be replaced by robots since it’s under your car (has to be due to space constrains and more importantly weight), and the amount of moving parts, reliability and safety concerns were a constant issue.

      For scooters it’s no problem given the way smaller size and optimal position inside the chassis, but for cars this concept hardly works properly.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
    3·
    7 days ago

    Honestly, a car with a small urban autonomy battery with a system where the rest of the battery is on a trailer would be a pretty awesome system, but it would require some massive adoption and car manufacturers are just going with ridiculously large batteries and fast charging for two reasons: they can sell it for more, and fast charging wears out the battery faster and requires more proprietary maintenance as a result.

    A lot of EV innovations that could have been have been denied entry suspiciously when they’ve reached the bureaucratic industrial standardization that most major car manufacturers just seem to be able to gloss over. The car industry doesn’t want to see the profits from proprietary parts and maintenance go, and nothing beats a combustion engine for that. I still miss the Sono Sion, an EV with solar panels which would have been perfect for people who use their cars occasionally on the weekend and rental services. At least Aptera is still going strong.