Currently own a 2017 Chevy Volt bought new and am really looking forward to the utility of a pickup with EREV capabilities. The Terra really will be the Swiss Army knife of vehicles. "If you only can have one vehicle, what would you choose?" kind of thing.
GM did some pretty useful and innovative things related to energy management in the Volt that I hope can be replicated in the EREV Scouts. Given the Scouts will be series hybrids and the Gen2 Volt is both series and parallel I know there will be requirements differences in energy management, but the following could still be implemented.
HOLD mode: Allows the driver to force the car into gas hybrid mode at current charge level to maintain that level using the gas engine. This is useful if you know you're going somewhere there is no charging available but still want to operate off battery. Can get to your destination area using gas, top off the gas tank with a full charge already on the battery pack, and have full range available. At that point can run any mix of gas or electric depending if hold mode is in use. I typically use this when going camping. Burn gas on the interstate getting to area, then electric locally and at site. I would enhance this mode by allowing it to be set in 10% increments of battery pack capacity vs. just at whatever level the battery pack is currently.
REDUCED PROPULSION mode: This one isn't driver selectable, but very well could be. If you run the car completely out of gas, and the battery hits 0 miles range, the "throttle" map changes and a limit on max discharge rate happens to stretch the final 4kwh (the Volt's hybrid buffer not normally available to the driver or calculated in range available) so you can get to a gas station. The car is borderline dangerously slow in this mode, but it's squeezing what range it can from the hybrid buffer and making that available to the driver. Driving the car very conservatively would achieve the same thing, but having a mode automatically kick in for this to also remind you you're completely out of gas, completely out of battery, and stretch your range is helpful. I think GM also did this because the engine is used in thermal management of the battery in extreme situations and it's a way to limit max discharge rate and thus battery temp where the engine wouldn't be needed since it's not available (out of gas).
POWER GENERATOR mode: This one isn't on the Volt but the Terra will need it with its 14-50 outlet. This mode would shut off everything in the vehicle not required for power delivery to the outlet, thermal management of the battery pack, and operation of the RE engine. It would calculate average load on the outlet and cycle the RE accordingly to maintain whatever charge level you desire on the pack while delivering power to the outlet. This way, the operator can decide to deplete the battery pack first, empty the gas tank first, or any mix in between depending on what's going on locally with electricity and gasoline supply. Sometimes you have power, sometimes you have gas, other times both are spotty, and yet other times you have neither. Think extended time periods like Katrina and Helene. This would also be settable in 10% increments of desired battery pack charge state.
Hope this is helpful and looking forward to my dark green Terra (saw the color poll in the other thread).
GM did some pretty useful and innovative things related to energy management in the Volt that I hope can be replicated in the EREV Scouts. Given the Scouts will be series hybrids and the Gen2 Volt is both series and parallel I know there will be requirements differences in energy management, but the following could still be implemented.
HOLD mode: Allows the driver to force the car into gas hybrid mode at current charge level to maintain that level using the gas engine. This is useful if you know you're going somewhere there is no charging available but still want to operate off battery. Can get to your destination area using gas, top off the gas tank with a full charge already on the battery pack, and have full range available. At that point can run any mix of gas or electric depending if hold mode is in use. I typically use this when going camping. Burn gas on the interstate getting to area, then electric locally and at site. I would enhance this mode by allowing it to be set in 10% increments of battery pack capacity vs. just at whatever level the battery pack is currently.
REDUCED PROPULSION mode: This one isn't driver selectable, but very well could be. If you run the car completely out of gas, and the battery hits 0 miles range, the "throttle" map changes and a limit on max discharge rate happens to stretch the final 4kwh (the Volt's hybrid buffer not normally available to the driver or calculated in range available) so you can get to a gas station. The car is borderline dangerously slow in this mode, but it's squeezing what range it can from the hybrid buffer and making that available to the driver. Driving the car very conservatively would achieve the same thing, but having a mode automatically kick in for this to also remind you you're completely out of gas, completely out of battery, and stretch your range is helpful. I think GM also did this because the engine is used in thermal management of the battery in extreme situations and it's a way to limit max discharge rate and thus battery temp where the engine wouldn't be needed since it's not available (out of gas).
POWER GENERATOR mode: This one isn't on the Volt but the Terra will need it with its 14-50 outlet. This mode would shut off everything in the vehicle not required for power delivery to the outlet, thermal management of the battery pack, and operation of the RE engine. It would calculate average load on the outlet and cycle the RE accordingly to maintain whatever charge level you desire on the pack while delivering power to the outlet. This way, the operator can decide to deplete the battery pack first, empty the gas tank first, or any mix in between depending on what's going on locally with electricity and gasoline supply. Sometimes you have power, sometimes you have gas, other times both are spotty, and yet other times you have neither. Think extended time periods like Katrina and Helene. This would also be settable in 10% increments of desired battery pack charge state.
Hope this is helpful and looking forward to my dark green Terra (saw the color poll in the other thread).
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