Tesla to make gas-electric car
The San Carlos, Calif.-based company will produce two basic types of its Whitestar sedan, due toward the end of 2009. One will run completely on batteries. The other will be a range-extended vehicle, or REV, CEO Ze'ev Drori said in an interview. In an REV, a small gas motor recharges the battery pack while the car is being driven. The battery pack on these types of cars only goes about 40 to 50 miles on a charge, but because it gets recharged while driving, the range of these cars will be longer.
They use this 'REV' acronym - and clearly they mean PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid EV). I don't know what REV could mean.
I found this audio clip on their web site - it's a "townhall meeting" aimed at the current owners of Tesla Roadsters. Well, none of them are owners yet, but incipient owners. The townhall meeting is going into some details on the Roadster design.
http://www.teslamotors.com/display_data/town_hall_01312008.mp3
Tesla to make gas-electric car
Tesla to make gas-electric car
Tesla to make gas-electric car
Tesla to make gas-electric car
Tesla to make gas-electric car
"...range-extended vehicle..." ?
Yes they mean plug-in hybrid, but maybe they want to emphasise that rather than a hybrid that can be plugged-in, it's an EV that can be assisted by an ICE. Same difference. Honestly, I am a bit tired of all these fancy acronmyms. Like PHEV, V2G, SOC, SUV, etc. PHEV isn't even correct, it should be PIHEV, if anything. Or rather PIH, because in no other context do you say Hybrid EV, it's always only Hybrid. That it's electric is understood, since that's the only type of hybrid that exists in larger numbers.
I think the difference may be that in a PHEV, the car still has it's IC engine connected to the drive train, so it gets part of, or part-time, traction power directly from the IC engine. But in a REV, the engine is connected only to a generator and strictly used to charge the batteries - this is a big enough difference to warrant a different acronym.
If this is the case, than REV is what I always thought "hybrid vehicle" was supposed to mean when I first heard of the concept way back.
For the record I missed "range extended vehicle" even though it's part of what I quoted. But I think it should be REEV or "Range extended EV".. but..?
PJD, that's a good distinction. But the traditional naming for those distinctions are "series hybrid" and "parallel hybrid". A series hybrid is as you describe, while a parallel hybrid allows both motor and engine to drive the wheels at the same time.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki