Comments on: “ebuggy” EV Battery Trailer Blazes a Shortcut to Affordable Electric Vehicles

By: Fred pointyup

Fred pointyup — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:54:00 +0000

The problem is that most people cant back a trailer. Simple. Attach the trailer at 2 points and make the car steer it. fit a 2 ball hitch 1 metre apart and free swivelling wheels and the trailer will park itself. OR a single centre hitch and a second connector rod to act directly on the trailers steering arm. Most important keep it all standard so you can rent a trailer any where. make different trailers for different people. Don’t make people pay petrol prices for electricity. Wanna get rich?

By: JR

JR — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Conrad,
There are already battery power bike assist trailers on the market. The currently available ones do lack PV panels though.

By: ed

ed — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:04:00 +0000

I would appreciate if you would leave your personal political views out of this

By: Conrad Clement

Conrad Clement — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:50:00 +0000

Backwards driving being the main motive against the e-buggy, why not apply it to bicycles first… as a trend-setter?

I had proposed this solution for the 2002 Swiss national exhibition, and it was published in my local newspaper along with a pseudo 3D computer drawing I made to illustrate the concept — which also featured a trailer-cover equipped with PV panels!

Bicycling being mostly practiced in summer, the typical leisure trip would start from elevated residential areas to reach river or lake shores, where the trailer can be unhooked an parked, with its battery fed by the PV panels whilst biking around on typically level roads with the naked bike (stripped of its heavy battery, and even of its motor, if the motor is also part of the trailer). Back in the evening, the recharged trailer hooked to the bike again will push you up the road to your home.

By: MoreBikesPlease

MoreBikesPlease — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 05:55:00 +0000

I don’t think you’ll be hitching up a trailer to your EV very often, it would be more for a holiday trip etc.
Instead of batteries, why not make it a cheap, light generator trailer? It’s been done before:
http://www.evnut.com/rav_longranger.htm

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Downside. You have to add a trailer hitch to your EV to use the trailer. (And backing up with a trailer is not something that most enjoy.)

I think we’re short years from a 200 mile range battery. We’ve already got 95% recharging in <20 minutes. Drive 3-4 hours, take a 20 minute break, drive 3-4 hours. I suspect that will be the answer.

(The Envia lithium-ion battery has been independently tested at 400 W/kg. Put that in the 100 (65 – 125) mile range Nissan Leaf and you've got a 333 (216 – 416) mile range Nissan Leaf with no weight increase. Cut it down to a 200 mile battery to save cost and weight. Go for 200 miles of highway driving as the goal.)

By: sola

sola — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:24:00 +0000

This sounds like a good concept, especially since you can only rent the battery only for a short period.