Inside my full scale AC brushless motor

[BrianG]

Unless battery technology changes dramatically, or solar power becomes much more efficient, I don't think we will see high power and long range in the same vehicle very soon. Power is V X A, and even a HV setup will pull some serious current to get high HP figures.

So, what about the use of turbine engines as a generator? I would imagine an engine could be tuned for maximum efficiency for a certain rpm and could run that all the time. And a turbine has less losses IIRC (higher efficiency). So, hook up a small ~50HP one to charge the batteries. For most people, a measely 200HP is all that's needed for decent launches (barring racing), and it only takes a small fraction of that power to keep a car moving at highway speeds. So, the batteries would provide the current peaks for starts, and they would be continually charged by the generator. You'd still have a range limit when you run out of fuel or your discharge is greater than the battery mAh combined with the charge rate of the engine/generator.

Twin 500HP motors with a 200m range? Hmm, let's see; 1000HP is 746,000w. If "only" 5% of that is needed to maintain normal speeds on the highway, that's still 37,300w (50HP). At say 400v, that's over 93A. To get 200m range at 70mph, you'd need 2.85 hours of runtime. That equates to 265Ah. Even doubling that voltage would still need ~132Ah. Still a lot of cells no matter how you set up the voltage. So, there's gotta be something to charge the system to get that kind of runtime. Or am I way off base here?