Treehugger: Take a Look at West Philadelphia High’s Hybrid
But where are the details on the diesel engine and the electric motor configuration? This is such a big tease right now! The car looks fabulous and sure, the performance is really sweet considering the 50 mpg they mention but where is the information on how I could drop the same electric motor into a car that already has a 1.9L TDI engine?
I can only assume that there would be a number of TDI owners out there that would love to hear about the specifics of how they mated the diesel engine with the electric motor. Heck, I don’t own a TDI but if I knew the details, I might just go buy a TDI to start hacking an electric motor into it.
The only semi-technical notes to be found are that the electric motor is an AC Propulsion 200hp motor (no mention of model but I’ll assume it’s the AC-150 EV Power System). The car is wired up with a regenerative braking systems. Currently it seems that the use of the diesel or electric motor has to be selected manually (manually on the fly or manually on startup?) but they want to do a computer controlled system.
I’d love for someone associated with the project to please provide more details on the mechanical side! I’m really curious and I’d be surprised if I’m the only one!
