Yeah the big problem is cost. I spec'd out what it would take to do it with
regen braking. It could be done slightly cheaper if you did it yourself from
scratch but developing the power/motor-generator controller would be very
hard and time consuming.  $35k is the beginning price point.  Not worth it
quite yet. I think that an ethanol boosted(intracooled) turbo setup would be
more realistic. It's cheaper, and would have just shy of the BTE of the
hybrid.

Jim Akiba

--- Kyle Davis <davis_family_46168@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
> > Hey all,
> >
> >      From personal experience (and list lurking and
> > ebay hunting) powerplant transplants are pretty
> > common
> > in the vanagons...  A majority of them are well
> > documented 2.1 in a 1.9, air cooled to water, diesel
> > to gas, vw to suby, vw to porsche, vw to tiico, gas
> > to
> > tdi, etc.
> >
> >      I also remember reading about an electric bus
> > (not vanagon) so I can presume gas>electric.
> >
> >      This brings me to my next question.  Did
> > anybody
> > ever consider going halfsies with that last one, ala
> > Toyota Prius or Honda Insight style?
> >
> >      The most bizarre conversion I've heard of was
> > VW
> > to Ford 2.8 liter v6 (somewhere, Ben Pon must be in
> > shock, or rolling over in his grave.)
> >
> >      I would dearly love to tell the oil industry
> > what
> > to do with high gas prices and convert the westy
> > into
> > total electric, but a few things hold me back.
> >
> >      1.)  Practicality.  The westy is basically a
> > fully-laden with camping gear bus.  An electric
> > motor,
> > no matter how many batteries feed it, just may not
> > be
> > able to do much with that.
> >
> >      2.)  Cost.
> >
> >      3.)  Safety.  Excessive electricity around lpg
> > may be an inherently Bad Idea TM.
> >
> >      4.)  Getting back to 1, it gets reasonably cold
> > here in the midwest, and my research of pure
> > electric
> > cars mentioned using hair dryers as heaters.
> >
> >     So, how feasible would it be to meet in the
> > middle?  And, I'm not necessarily saying bolt on a
> > prius or an insight, or even a ford escape hybrid
> > engine into this solution, or suggest that that
> > would
> > even work.  I guess I am just wondering if anybody
> > has
> > tried this, and, if so what measure of success or
> > failure they were able to obtain...
> >
> > Kyle
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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