1992, 1995, 2001 ACPropulsion Prototype RXT-Gs

" RXT-Gs I, II, & III "

--->   Range Extending Trailers - Generator   <---

===

Vehicle Description


Designed by AC Propulsion & Alan Cocconi

RXT-G stands for Range Extending Trailer - Generator and
have also been referred to as:

" LongRanger,"
" Range Extender," or
" GenSet "  trailers.

These units convert BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) into 'series'
hybrid vehicles for long distance & cross country travel.

AC Propulsion's LongRanger development includes three prototype
versions built between 1992 & 2001 for various applications.
The Beata Collection includes one of each development model as
referenced below.  All of the examples are operational
and representative of range extending technologies
of the day.

The three (3) models include:

The LongRanger I (9kW) - [c1992]
utilized an air cooled B&S ICE.  We understand that several
examples of this version are in existence.

The LongRanger II (17kW) - [c1994]
utilized  a 250cc water cooled ICE.  This unit is a one-off
prototype.

The LongRanger III (20kW) - [c1998 - 2001]
utilized a 500cc water cooled ICE of which there are three
known examples.  The Beata Collection holds the last
of the LongRanger III units, the TMC
commissioned  prototype for the production NiMH Rav4-EV.

Owning to the BEVs "electric first" design, 'series' hybrids
are capable of greater overall range when compared
to early development standard OEM 'parallel' hybrid drives; which,
by definition, relyed on "ICE first" with only an electric
boost to primary ICE operations.  Around c2017, OEM hybrids  began
developing a dual system that allows slower speeds to
be pure electric, cancelling ideling, and initiating ICE operations
after a given range.  As development continues hopefully
OEMs will pursue pure BEV drives as a primary focus, and smaller
and more  efficient 'series' ICE drives (meant only to support
zero SOC situations) as a secondary focus.

Additional Wikipedia data at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genset_trailer

===

We recently learned (c2022) that GM EV1 engineers had
built a 'hand-full' of range-extending series generator
trailers at the Milford Proving Grounds facility during the 1990s.  With
the lead-acid  batteries of the day struggling to achieve even
a 100/mile/charge range, and engineers tasked
with 60,000 mile durability test regimes, the series generator
trailers were needed to solve the issue of putting a
lot of miles on a  low range vehicle in a short amount of time.  Since
learning this information we have set-out to locate any pictures,
and/or locate an old example of the GM range extenders.

Here is our contact if you have any information to 
share on the subject.

rxt-g (at) tzev (dot) com


--->  Additional pictures below  <---