[geeks] electric cars

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: velociraptor <velociraptor at gmail.com>
" 
" On 10/23/06, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
" > Some things I wonder about:
" >
" > The Prius has a continuously variable transmission, and I wonder how
" > reliable they are and how much they cost to fix relative to standard
" > automatics.
" 
" >From what I know of CVT and mechanics (my ex is a hobbiest drag racer
" and has wrenched for ~30 yrs), if it is like the Subaru CVT that was
" in the Justy, they are much easier to fix than typical automatics and
" pretty reliable.  The Justy's CVT was a belt system, iirc.

yes, they're reliable and easy to fix - and also flexible, which made
them popular on snowmobiles - but efficiency and hp capacity have not
been strong points.  fixing those points has been a struggle.

the first use of cvt in cars afaik was daf [van doorne automobiel
fabriek] in the netherlands, and they did it for simplicity not
efficiency.  their engines were only 600cc and 30hp though, and the
justy wasn't much bigger, at least at first.  the prius isn't far from
this area either.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought