Seth Leitman

This book is riddled with basic misunderstandings (e.g. lack of clarity about the distinction between torque and power). One graph for example purports to show the power output of series DC motors but uses a typical torque curve instead, showing power as a maximum at zero r.p.m. This is like finding a book on climate confusing heat and temperature: it undermines any confidence in anything else the author says.

The text was poorly structured both in terms of the flow of the topics and the depth at which they were tackled: you would read a page of general description then turn the page to find a circuit diagram from a Prius.

Finally I found the environmental finger-wagging irritating: I bought the book wanting to understand more about the engineering of hybrids and the environmental bits struck me as both inappropriate and partisan.… (plus d'informations)

This is Leitman's update of Bob Brant's original 1993 book. I have read both.

Like the original book it suffered from excessive tree-hugging. I read the book for an insight into electric vehicles, not a rehash of material from the International Panel on Climate Change (which some people believe and others do not).

Given it's date, I was surprised that there was not more discussion of Lithium batteries and AC drives.

Also, do not expect a lot of detail on the actual process of conversion. There was just one chapter on this and it was quite general - not clearly based on a single conversion exercise, and certainly nothing like detailed step-by-step instructions.

Even the theory chapters were a bit shallow and lacking both clarity and authority. If you were expecting to come away with a clear understanding of the difference between a wound-rotor and a squirrel cage motor, or the pluses and minuses of different Lithium chemistries, you would be disappointed.… (plus d'informations)