Great additions to my thought experiment. HCCI is especially interesting. I purposely left out a lot of the interesting possibilities to keep it simple. I wanted to keep focus on just the simple case. And I was aware that there are two major differences between a standard hybrid and our "remote series hybrid" (great concise & descriptive name, BTW):
- Efficiency Loss: ICE never drives wheels, therefore there exist efficiency loss from mechanical -> electrical -> chemical -> electrical -> mechanical
- Efficiency Gain: ICE can run at constant optimal RPM
Note: I acknowledge that you also stated that the EV requires extra cost, weight, and space. Let's ignore cost and space because we're just talking about emissions & efficiency. And weight could be somewhat ignored because the range of vehicle weights are still within the same ballpark -- so let's just do that for simplification.
What magnitude for each of these (#1 & #2) would you estimate? Are they close enough to cancel (and therefore ignore?)
Oh! And did you happen to see my "Edit"? If we do this same thought experiment for the home (taking the home off grid), that would get rid of the efficiency loss from multiple conversions. In reality, you would need at least a small energy storage device such as a battery, but for simplicity sake, assume a mostly constant load at home. So, would the "series hybrid home" case be better than the "grid-electric home"?
Should we (and by "we," I really mean "you," because I'm a bit lazy
) start putting some numbers down? Or do we need to further define the variables and conditions?
QUICK SIDE NOTE: I'm really starting to enjoy our conversations now! And maybe it's just me, but I feel the tone of the entire thread is better too.