# Scooter engine + generator...?



## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

Did anyone thought about using a scooter motor as a range extender?

This scooter has a 250 ccm engine:




17 kw power. I guess that the engine without transmission is under 50 kg.

How possible would it be to make a generator of such a engine? 

I think that this would be an very good range extender.


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## dimitri (May 16, 2008)

I recall a thread where it was discussed, I think someone actually tried it or at least seriously considered it. Search for it...

I remember issues were that 2 stroke engines are so noisy, inefficient and smelly that having one in EV would be a disgrace to the EV


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## todayican (Jul 31, 2008)

That particular scooter is likely a water cooled 250 of the linhang or lifan variety, one challenge in adapting it to a gen set will be its integrated cvt trans / swingarm assembly.

depending on your vehicle size, you may be able to adapt something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YX-1...8806285QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

or this: http://www.smallenginedistributors...." x 3 5/32" Shaft, Electric Start, Oil Filter


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## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

dimitri said:


> I recall a thread where it was discussed, I think someone actually tried it or at least seriously considered it. Search for it...
> 
> I remember issues were that 2 stroke engines are so noisy, inefficient and smelly that having one in EV would be a disgrace to the EV


It's a very economical and environmental friendly 4-stroke engine.


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## CroDriver (Jan 8, 2009)

todayican said:


> That particular scooter is likely a water cooled 250 of the linhang or lifan variety, one challenge in adapting it to a gen set will be its integrated cvt trans / swingarm assembly.
> 
> depending on your vehicle size, you may be able to adapt something like this:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YX-1...8806285QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
> ...


This second one, the Honda engine looks great!! 

Does anyone know what I would need to do to make this engine to an range extension generator?

BTW. You can easily remove the swingarm with the transmission from the scooter engine and that was what I wanted to do...


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

CroDriver said:


> ...
> Does anyone know what I would need to do to make this engine to an range extension generator?...


I'd think you'd just want to add a constant speed governor to it, found on lawn mowers, pressure washers, generators, etc... It is possible, especially with a Honda engine, that you will be able to find a mechanical governor assembly from another model that fits the scooter engine.

If not, I guess you could always go at the problem with an ammeter driving an r/c servo: if more amps are demanded from the generator the servo rotates the throttle plate open more.

I like the idea of using a cheap scooter engine in a range extender - I hope you try it out, CroDriver.

Oh, and in the spirit of re-purposing items for uses they were never intended, remember that a plain old ac induction motor can be operated as a generator by spinning it faster than it's synchronous speed by the same amount as its running speed is slower.

E.g. - in the US a common motor speed is 3450 RPM and the synchronous speed is 3600 rpm; if you spin that motor at 3750 rpm you can extract up to the rated full load amps of the motor.

The only trick is that the power factor of the load MUST be leading (capacitive). Fortunately, a switching power supply looks like a capacitive load, so switchmode chargers would work well here (but not ones with active power factor correction... unless the ac output from the motor was capacitively coupled to the power supply).

Something to think about. One of these days, once the controller is in production, I'm going to take a few days to play around with this and see how practical it is.


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## Bowser330 (Jun 15, 2008)

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_8795_8795

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200119424_200119424

740$ + 850$ = 1590$ for 9.6kw of continuous range extension...

Ive read on these boards that it only takes about 15kw to cruise at freeway speeds in the average car...

If you were to make your HEV more aerodynamic and lighten the overall weight...you might be able to bring that closer to 10kw...


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