"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Doctor Drivel wrote:

The ratio is continously variable


.....oh no! failure. The planetary cluster is referred to as a
power-splitter. A normal gearbox/CVT lowers and raises ratios. No
ratios
are raised and lowered.

Nonsense. The wheel speed can
vary independently of the engine or motor
speed. Therefore the ratio varies.

Garbage. The only ratio that varies is the ration between the two parallel
power sources. The power splitter decides that.

Back to basics. If you apply the correct
power/torque at the wheels you
don't need a gearbox. An electric car
doesn't have a gearbox because the
electric motors can do this.

However this is not what happens in the prius...

It is.

More correctly it combines power from
two sources.

You are getting it. We shall see.

hp each, and sends the combined power to the wheels.
No raising or lowering
of ratios,

The wheel speed is not fixed for a
given engine speed. Therefore the
ratios change.

The wheel speed is fixed to the power, which is not just from an engine.

That is what it does. Simple.

Yup, simple CVT.

Oh no. after I though there was some progress. Drat.

Through a planetary gear that matches
the engine speed to wheel speed by
variation of the effective gear ratio.
The differential speed of the
power sources dictates the ratio.

Missed it again. Keep going.

What these outfits are doing is building plug-in hybrid vehicles, PHEVs.
PHEVs still have petrol engines which turn electric motors to charge the

Pretty much what they have done on trains for years then... (except with
batteries)