Maintenance of Harvester gas engine range extender

[RMK!]

My understanding is that my Gen 1 Volt mostly uses the engine to drive the generator and only direct couples the engine to the drivetrain above 50mph, presumably for efficiency. If you need to pass it decouples and uses pure electric.

My original point was that the engine/generator is capable of fully operating the vehicle and not just some kind of "booster". You can run the car indefinitely on gas and have full power. Also, the car keeps track of the engine hours and alerts the driver when an oil change is required, not based on miles.

Yep, it was a "smart car" in that my wifes commute was less than 40 miles per day she was always on electric drive. One year she received a warning on the screen that the cars gasoline was nearly a year old and it automatically ran on gas only until that the tank was emptied of the old gas. She would plugin and charge every night and replenish the 40 miles of potential range via a standard 120V outlet. The Volts were beautifully engineered nice little vehicles which never made a profit for Chevy hence their demise.

 

[TreeKiller]

Hopefully with Scout stating that some 80% of the vehicle's systems will be user serviceable, that means the Harvester will be configured in such a way as to make it easy to DIY oil changes, spark plugs, etc.

 

[NukeDukem]

Agree, this sounds much more akin to the i3 REX. We had one and loved it.

Couple interesting facts to note. CA CARB emissions forced BMW to limit the range the generator could go by software limiting the fuel tank size. Only US BMWs had this.

You could hack the car to allow more fuel in the tank and go further. Another amazing hack was the ability to force the generator on. That 600cc scooter engine made noise and it was much better hearing it at highway speeds than in your neighborhood/garage.

Hopefully Scout allows for push-button Harvesting!

P.S. BMW REX maintenance intervals were 5K miles or 12-months.

Why base service intervals on distance rather than time? The engine will run at a constant RPM and not be connected to a transmission or drivetrain. Pretty low stress for a motor.