Its basically a hybrid now
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
347 points (97.5% liked)
hmmm
7871 readers
569 users here now
For things that are "hmmm".
Rule 1: All post titles except for meta posts should be just plain "hmmm" and nothing else, no emotes, no capitalisation, no extending it to "hmmmm" etc.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
A plug-in hybrid.
And yes, they suck (gas).They're a german niche (the real ones), because the law ~~mistakenly~~ on purpose counts them as green subsidy, despite the battery being enough for a few dotzend km only, most of it's mileage being a extra heavy gas car.
Depends on how you use it. Most of my driving is on electric even with only a 35km range. It gets maybe 20 gallons of gas per year and drives 6500 miles per year (~900/year on gas).
above all, the biggest issue i see here is the mounting (or lack thereof) of the generator on the trailer.
please, secure your loads!!!
The biggest issue I see here is the generator not casting a shadow like the rest of the trailer.
Top Gear did this years ago when they solved EVs...
rip green stig
They're doing it wrong. They need a small wind turbine on the back. As they drive, the turbine spins, producing energy which charges the car, which is then used to drive, which further spins the turbines! There is no flaw to this logic! ~/s~
so out in the utah salt flats they're always trying new and ridiculous looking things. There was a vehicle i remember seeing similar to this one:
the turbine was in the back and the wind provided all the motive force for the vehicle. and it worked! And the blades were not contained so it could chop the fuck out of something that got too close, absolute deathtrap. but powered by wind alone so if you had the right geography, like you live in wyoming or something you got a free ride. pop class 2 electric hub motor on that for windless days, fix the deathtrap part and you have an ideal vehicle if you ask me.
I'm willing to bet it would've been more efficient (but less maneuverable/flexible in its direction of travel) with a sail, just because that would avoid the electric conversion losses.
there were no electric conversions. it just went fan to wheel. it was a really neat vehicle. i think the dude died because he fell backward into the fan. i can't remember, just that's what my anxiety told me was going to happen eventually. i think it could get up to 60mph. it could go faster than the wind and travel into the wind also.
If you put solar panels on most of the surface of the car you can get up to like 40 miles per day, if Aptera makes it to production you could see that in real life. Though they do have a massive benefit of having a ridiculously efficient shape and layout
This is basically what every EREV is. The generator is just integrated into the car, otherwise it's essentially the same thing.
At the same time, I've wondered if it would be helpful for EVs on some long-distance road trips to tow/stow a generator for overnight and emergency charging. Charging stations are popping up more and more, but if you're saddled with an obsolete or under-served charging port type (e.g. Nissan Leaf), having a generator would be valuable insurance.
damn, nissan leaf is under served? I guess that product placement in sim city whichever fucking year glass box was didn't pay off
load more comments
(3 replies)
I’m not sure about this, surely an EV wouldn’t allow charging while in motion as a safety measure against driving off while plugged in?
But then, there’s this photo right here unless I’ve been suckered into believing AI edits again.
Sus
Tesla won't you put it into drive if the cable is attached. Even if this is some hacked firmware, that tiny generator will give you like 4mi of range every hour. Definitely a meme.
What if you plug it in after it is in drive?
Yeah, that's supposed to be impossible. Either they're not moving and it's a staged shot (unlikely, since they're in the middle of traffic and there appears to be motion blur), or they've fiddled with the car to make it think the charging door is closed, or it's an edit.
I'm suspicious of the motion blur, personally, because the traffic looks too tight to be moving much, so I suspect an edit
Giving the photo the benefit of the doubt, it's also possible that this Tesla owner had to bring a generator somewhere for unrelated reasons, and thought it would be "funny" to hook it up to the charge port on his car as a joke.
My point is that wouldn't work, unless the car was in park. A Tesla will simply refuse to move if a charger is connected
That's not a charger though. EVs can't take the direct power from a generator. It needs to communicate with a base. So that "cable" is impossible and is a joke.
Doesn't matter. The car knows something's plugged in, even if it can't talk to it
i found a higher quality version, not sure of the original source, and its definitely AI:
regardless though, i did look into if this is possible. no matter if the connector on the vehicle is NACS/SAE J3400 (the "tesla" connector") or SAE J1772 (CCS 1), for AC charging—which is the situation here—it will be the same (note that this will not exactly apply to vehicles using CHAdeMO, GB/T, etc.). i went with this document that briefly outlines NACS. this is the proper standard, but i wasnt able to find a copy gratis with my two minutes of searching. this should still apply to other vehicles with a CCS 1/J1172 connector, at least for AC charging!
now, since we are charging with alternating current, we have only five pins to deal with, seen here for NACS (for CCS 1, just ignore the two super giant pins, if present. otherwise it applies to CCS 1 too!):
the big two (HV + and HV -) are for supplying power, no matter the flavor of AC or DC at hand. with CCS, DC charging goes through the two big pins at the bottom, AC charging works the same way though. the ground pin is present for low voltage electronics to actually have, well, a proper reference to ground! (this is your zero volt pin).
finally, we have the control pilot, and the proximity pilot. the former is a digital interface for the vehicle and charger to communicate in depth about charging speed, battery status, etc. the latter however, which is of the greatest interest to us, handles the physical connection itself. this is where the name comes from: it handles when a charging connector is in proximity (plugged in) to the vehicle!
when measuring between the ground pin and the proximity pilot pin, if the vehicle is ready to accept a charging cable but none is plugged in, there will be five volts. if there is something compatible plugged in, resistors within the connector will pull the voltage down lower (to 1.5V), indicating that something is, well, plugged in!
here is the part of the charging connection schematic that is relevant to us:
R1 and R2 are just resistors (150Ω and 330Ω, respectively), and S1 is a (optional to implement) normally-closed switch—likely a button on the charger plug handle—that brings the voltage slightly higher (to 2.8V), to signal to stop charging and if possible, unlock the connector (if it is locking).
now, the resistors themselves are located inside the plug, and not the charger/power control unit. after all, if the vehicle manages to somehow move away, and the cable snaps off said unit, the vehicle can still be aware of if something is plugged in!
of course, if you want to defeat this, it is very simple: tape over the proximity pilot pin! as far as the charge port door goes? from forum posts i've seen, the vehicle will still drive, even if it's a little whiney.
"but wait!" you say, "the vehicle can latch the connector into itself. can't it just detect it that way?"
this would certainly vary by vehicle. for teslas, it likely can't (or if it could, the engineers didn't bother to). seen in this youtube video, the charge door slams into the object left in the charge port, indicating the vehicle probably doesn't look at this.
i also looked up the electrical schematics provided by tesla here (SVG):
the block on the left is the vehicle-side charging port assembly, the right is the actual vehicle computer. the three pins at the bottom handle the connector latch: X312-1 and X312-3, which power the motors, and X312-2, a switch/button in the port which is presumably what the vehicle uses to know it latched onto something successfully. remember, this is for the latch the vehicle extends—not the one that is simply mechanical and operated by the driver—and most likely does not provide enough information to tell if something is plugged in.
overall, if we are talking about teslas, your point does hold some merit; even if you snipped the charging plug entirely off a cable, the vehicle can still (if the plug is up to standards) detect it if it's plugged in. however, something like this would not be unrealistic, even if the vehicle didn't actually charge.
of course, this may not be the case for other vehicles! but that is beyond the scope here :)
load more comments
(1 replies)
While EVs won't allow starting the car whilst charging, they will allow the charger to be open, and the cable is likely a dummy so wouldn't be registered as "plugged in". Thus allowing this joke outfit to drive around like this.
load more comments
(3 replies)
My guess is that it's staged in that it's how they've "dressed" the vehicle and are doing it for laughs
It's also entirely possible someone had to transport that generator and decided to have some fun with it and fuck with people.
Generator doesnt look to be strapped down or secured to anything I think it's been shopped or edited in.
You're absolutely right. This is just a fake.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Checkmate, atheists!
México mágico
Basically a train engine
And ships.
I doubt this works but I’m suspending disbelief because this is funny: The EV car battery is charged by the generator. But to get the generator powered, you gotta put gas in it.
I've seen a few pictures like this before. The fun fact part is, this is could actually be pretty damn efficient if done well. Gas powered generators are designed to run efficiently and deliver power at a specific RPM. An gas car's engine has to run and deliver power at a wide range of RPMs, so is generally not running at it's most efficent speed.
Well, as far as I know Honda hybrids work this way.
New Honda hybrids don't even have driveshafts connecting the engine to the wheels, it's purely for generating electricity. Pretty cool imo
Gas powered generators are designed to run efficiently for small shitty motors. Gas generators are not efficient. Especially if you care about emissions since they usually lack catalytic converters.
I don't think this guy cares about emissions nor what happens to the generator when he floors the accelerator.
Making electricity this way, storing it in the battery and using it to drive a vehicle have their own efficiencies, all less than 100%. Also, these smaller types of generators aren't that efficient to begin with. So I doubt it.
An EV with a range extending gasoline motor could also easily be configured to run at peak efficiency with the added benefit of being within the aerodynamic envelope of the car instead of being a trailered brick.
load more comments
(1 replies)
"I bought this Tesla, but there's no place to charge it, do you want it?"
"Sure."
That generator does not look like it's secured properly.
view more: next ›