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Rotary engines are light, compact and have a good amount of power per unit displacement, plus they're smooth running. But, they burn a lot of oil and exhaust the products, plus they exhaust a good deal of only partially burnt fuel, and they're inefficient. They are really dirty and really inefficient - there are good reasons no one is using them any more.
I've seen a few nice looking RX8s for sale cheap with bad engines because the owners didn't know they were supposed to check the oil level more often than a normal engine.
This is a strange post, since the OP pretty much talked himself out of getting an EV in his first post. The OP's reasons were logical. EV's are not great at long trips yet.
The tipping point for most people looking into EV's is a 300 mile range and a 30 minute charge. No vehicles today can fully charge the battery at 30 minutes. When charging, EV's fill faster in the first 20% than the last 20% starting from a nearly empty battery. It would be faster to charge up to 100 miles, then drive to the next station and charge 100 and so on than to stop and charge from 0-300. But the infrastructure is not set up to do that yet.
If you are looking to drive a long distance as quickly as possible with the least amount of stopping, then, as you already know, EV's are not for you. Maybe in another 3-4 years possibly?
To paraphrase Trotsky: You may not be interested in electric cars, but electric cars are interested in you.
You will drive an electric car by 2030 unless you go the Cuban route and keep fixing up old ICE cars or import South Asian putt-putt's from the third world. Ford and GM are moving inexorably toward full EV lineups and so is everybody else.
I've seen a few nice looking RX8s for sale cheap with bad engines because the owners didn't know they were supposed to check the oil level more often than a normal engine.
Yeah...duh. I always have a quart of oil in the trunk, just in case. But that's only because I tried to stretch it too far between oil changes - it "sips" oil, doesn't chug it.
Rotary engines are light, compact and have a good amount of power per unit displacement, plus they're smooth running. But, they burn a lot of oil and exhaust the products, plus they exhaust a good deal of only partially burnt fuel, and they're inefficient. They are really dirty and really inefficient - there are good reasons no one is using them any more.
Right, though I have seen some pretty nifty new rotary engine based generators that seem to make sense. Maybe the good power output for small size bit comes in real handy for a series hybrid if the generator when run keeps in a narrow, optimized band. I know Mazda really puts a lot of its identity into its work with the rotary engine, so it'd be interesting if they can get this to work. They've even trialed hydrogen fueled rotary combustion engines (and *not* a fuel cell) and I do appreciate work being put into these long shots that may or may not work out. It's at least somewhat interesting that a relatively small automaker that's able to survive can be so neurotically devoted to its mythology. Maybe it'll pan out!
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 03-19-2021 at 05:33 PM..
To paraphrase Trotsky: You may not be interested in electric cars, but electric cars are interested in you.
You will drive an electric car by 2030 unless you go the Cuban route and keep fixing up old ICE cars or import South Asian putt-putt's from the third world. Ford and GM are moving inexorably toward full EV lineups and so is everybody else.
Maybe yes, maybe no. According to predictions, we should have been driving flying cars for a few years already. And...we can not even predict the weather. Now a hybrid vehicle would make more sense, but that's is me ("I know nothing")
Right, though I have seen some pretty nifty new rotary engine based generators that seem to make sense. Maybe the good power output for small size bit comes in real handy for a series hybrid if the generator when run keeps in a narrow, optimized band. I know Mazda really puts a lot of its identity into its work with the rotary engine, so it'd be interesting if they can get this to work. I think a few years ago, they even trialed a hydrogen fueled rotary combustion engine (and *not* a fuel cell) and I do appreciate work being put into these long shots that may or may not work out. It's at least somewhat interesting!
Hydrogen would be a great source of energy, and so natural gas or propane. In fact, in my humble and very limited opinion, it would make no sense to abandon ICE, hydrogen, biofuels, and natural gas all together, and then switch to batteries.
Hydrogen would be a great source of energy, and so natural gas or propane. In fact, in my humble and very limited opinion, it would make no sense to abandon ICE, hydrogen, biofuels, and natural gas all together, and then switch to batteries.
No one is abandoning all of these altogether for all purposes, so I guess the rest of the world agrees with you in that people will agree that water is wet.
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