You've probably seen the size of the buried concrete foundations of those things. They are immense.

And they quickly feather the blades in strongish winds.

Years ago, before I got an engineering degree and learned to calculate stuff, I had read something about an ICE with extra steam powered stroke(s) or something along those lines. No idea if it made any sense or even if it was a real thing.

Well the theory behind it sure makes sense, but there are a few hurdles I can already think of, like:

-some ancillaries like the water pump or AC need to start running as soon as the engine starts up, they can't wait until the engine warms up and builds steam pressure
-you can map the alternator to only work in braking situations, which is a far simpler solution than a steam turbine

However, using a steam turbine to charge a hybrid battery that provides power assist would make sense on paper, and could provide a mileage boost to closed-circuit hybrids in situation where they don't use KERS, such as constant-speed highway driving. The only research paper I could find on this is from Egypt and is 20 years old so it's either super-duper-confidential, or not something being worked on.

It's likely too late for an idea like this that only provides marginal gains, in a world where PHEVs and BEVs will soon take over.

My guess is the latter lol.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/26/2...-affordable-ev


GM killing off the Bolt, rip

Yeah, too bad, but the people have spoken, and they want giant trucks and not small, affordable cars, and there are investors to consider--capitalism, right?

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/11721...vehicle-ending

Well, that's what she said, but really it's being replaced by the Equinox EV so they can get the Ultium battery in the bottom level car, and it can DCFS. I really think they didn't want to re-engineer the Bolt for that.

Thank God. I wouldn't want it any other way

CAFE regs are skewed to favor trucks/SUVs over cars, and also to favor *larger* cars over smaller. Automakers find it easier to meet regs with bigger, less-efficient vehicles. Level the CAFE across the board, make it more stringent every year, and we'll get a lot more reasonable size/weight vehicles on the road and fewer monsters.

Why do you say that? Seems like they could build any new gen compact with a similar shell and call it a Bolt. I see no reasons why they would be able to build a new, EV Equinox, but would be stuck reengineering and retrofitting a new powertrain to the old Bolt.

I always thank God for capitalism too and for God to save capitalism from capitalism.

https://fortune.com/2023/04/05/end-o...orate-profits/

Agreed, except for the first clause.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/p...sized_6484.jpg

Are we really going back to this conversation? People are choosing to buy these vehicles. Like yes, CAFE standards aren't as strict for SUVs and light duty trucks than cars, but heavier vehicles are harder to make efficient too, so either way, it is hard on manufactures. They are selling SUVs and trucks because people want to buy them, and because there is greater profit margin on selling larger vehicles with larger engines and with more stuff. Every industry is trying to upsell you to a larger and more expensive version of the same thing whether we are talking about a double cheese Whopper with XL soda or your 75" TV with 8K resolution.

CAFE standards will likely evolve to apply to EVS, but all EVs meet CAFE standards. Even the Hummer EV gets 52 MPGe, so manufactures could sell only Hummer EVs and not pay a CAFE fine. Discontinuing the Bolt for EV trucks is just good business for them--more money in their pockets. It would also remove more ICE trucks off the road, which do emit more emissions, so by replacing the Bolt with the EV trucks, they are making more money, reducing the fines they might be paying on the trucks and reducing emissions more. Sounds like a win/win, even if it is less than optimal.

It is pretty much the consensus on several forums I read. They could do what you said but the Bolt didn't meet their sales projections primarily based on it's looks, and the Equinox is closer to what sells these days.