How bout thisÂ…small lightweight aluminum trailer with flat pack battery setup, twist-lock power connectors, multi pin for monitoring and temp control. Use the upper part of the trailer for extra storage. Instant longer range capability.
Scott
Not a chance. You are talking about 400 volts while being loaded with a few hundred amps. The DC fast charger plugs are about the only thing that would be close that a consumer would touch. Those are crazy cables, something like 000-gauge. Look at the countless horrible trailer plugs running down the highway and the fact that even the massive fast charge plug is nowhere near robust enough to be used in a dynamic situation. Drag through a little insulation, that isn't going to be pretty. And that cable is REALLY expensive. The battery monitoring is way easier than what you are thinking. Really all you need is 4 wires, power, ground, and a pair for CAN databus.
The next problem is dragging a trailer around kills range. By about the same as what the trailer could provide. That is one of the evil twists about electric cars. You can't just add more batteries to make the range further. The added weight hurts the range. Roughly triple the battery to double the range in a car. Trailer is worse, more rolling tires, more rolling bearings. And we are talking about cars where the compound in the rubber on the tires can change the range of the vehicle by several percent. The trailer bit would be pretty close to a wash, all the gains are lost by the added drag.
There is some neat tech coming out of Germany (I think) where they are working on putting a complete battery and motor package in a trailer. Some legal issues since the trailer is also a power source, is it now a vehicle? The hopes are to just maintain the range of the tow vehicle without the added trailer drag. Zero out the load on the hitch ball. So it isn't a range extender, just a range maintainer.
About 5 years ago I rode an electric trials bike. There were 2 batteries. One on the bike and another in a backpack. If you don't know a trials bike, rock hopping on a motorcycle. The backpack was used to get around the loop. The distance battery. At each section (point of competition) he would take the backpack off, plug the bike into the on-board battery, ride the competition part (about 150 feet of distance), then pick up the backpack and switch to it for the ride to the next event. That backpack was about 40 pounds. All to power a motorcycle that only weighs in at about 150 pounds (in the normal internal combustion version, wet, fully fueled, ready to ride) Batteries are heavy when you start talking about serious power levels.
Another evil thing about electric vehicles, you have to keep the battery with you. If you used up 90% of the capacity, you have 90% of the battery as dead weight that you are still hauling around. Can't just set it aside or get another one down the road.
If it were easy it would have been done by now. For inspiration
