An all electric motor home seems doable....
https://www.youtube.com/embed/5n9xafjynJA
How big of a generator would it take to enable a hybrid set up that would allow 400 miles per day and run the house systems?
Since you asked. I think my coach uses around 180 hp cruising at 70 mph. That's around 135 kW. I think a Tesla has about an 85 KwHr battery pack. So if you used two Tesla battery packs you could cruise for about an hour.
I am thinking of a hybrid RV not necessarily one that has to be plugged in at the end of every trip.
I could be remembering the cruising Hp all wrong, it's been years since I had it on the Silverleaf screen. I have slept since then.
But think about it. A 180 hp diesel is around the size of the one in the Sprinter vans. The battery pack would come in handy for going up hills. You would get some power from regenerative braking, but not enough to be significant.
This is not out of our current technology window. Cost effectiveness could be the most serious barrier.
You wouldn't need the weight of the current genset, but would have one much smaller diesel engine used in a hybrid configuration
My math can't be right, but I don't know what I'm goofing up.
So, taking some of Elon's claims of 400 mi range, around 6 hrs drive time, of 6 X 135 = 800 KwH battery pack or ten times what Tesla is currently putting in cars. I can't make any math work that says that truck can be recharged in 30 mins at anything other than a nuke power plant.
As a non engineer, let's say you take a Tesla truck chassis stretch it modify it for a coach. Weight would be fine. Not many of us drive more than 500 miles a shot. Charge it overnight . If it could be charged off of a 220v.. seems like a winner.. tons less maintenance.
Richard,
Would not the weight and space of the battery pack be greater than that of the generator?
Marc,
Don't forget to take the cost of electricity into account. Parks will surely not eat the significant cost in their rate structures. In my early days of working out of an 8 x 40 Sunflower trailer with 2 tip outs, I would always stay at parks that included electricity in the +/- $150.00 per month space rent. Most parks in those days did not have individual meters. On the rare occasion I had to pay for my electricity out of my pocket, during summer months in the AZ desert it would not be unusual for it to cost $250.00 per month. AC's & electric WD were not so efficient back in the '70s. Made me feel like I was being paid to stay at some places. The short term future might be great for electric vehicles until the folks actually paying the cost demand that they no longer be forced to subsidize the folks using the newest greatest technology. But until that time, I would gladly drive an electric coach that I'm not paying the electric bill for!
My thought was to use a driveline setup like the Tesla truck only with slightly more battery capacity. Add a generator (certainly larger than we currently need) and run the house systems off of the battery pack as well. In the real world the generator would probably run 24/7, supply high voltage needs and charge the battery as needed. Solar panels on the roof could contribute as well. I realize this might be as possible as the perpetual motion machine but it would be interesting to see how close the numbers would be with current technology. I am certainly not an engineer so the numbers are beyond my capability....
I love the internal combustion engine. I go out in the shop and start the ol' 455 Trans am (with the ram air cam) up just to hear it run.....but I have been fascinated with electric automobiles , especially Tesla from day 1. We had a guest at our B+B last summer that was driving a Tesla and was kind enough to give me the 50 cent tour of it.
CC's point is well taken. If everybody along the way had to pay the real cost of some of this new technology many of these enterprises would fold.
We face an interesting future in energy. As the solar (PV) technology continues to mature and become much cheaper, the battery technology is making strides. It's not nearly ready for primetime, but the day is in reach to harvest solar and store it to support a domicile. As soon as that price point is reached, then the entire power grid is in for an interesting journey. Customers will drop off the grid, meaning grid maintenance becomes higher for existing customers. Power bills will rise drivng more to invest and disconnect from the grid, accelerating the cost increases for grid power again and again as the cycle repeats.
Clint and Dean are correct in that the novelty electric car industry is unknowing subsidized by all of us.
I still can't get the math of the truck recharge to work at anything that resembles domestic voltages.