What happened to Rotary range extenders?

Illustration for article titled What happened to Rotary range extenders?

Just wondering where they went? 150 lbs for a complete 36kw generator package that takes about about 1 suitcase of luggage sounds like a win for the electric car takeover.

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36 kw would keep a model S cruising indefinitely on the highway and about about 50% range when its not just cruising. I guess its the concept of gas at ALL in an EV. I get that. But I mean, say you have a model X and you also have a boat or camper, it would sure be nice to be able to get 200-250 miles on a charge instead of having to charge up every 100-150.

Decreasing lengthy charge stops by 50% sounds great to me. The word is that its very quiet too, hardly noticeable by most drivers.

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Also makes me wonder why no one offers a trailer like this. telsaphiles would never go for it, but real users would probably like a travel trailer that could increase their range 50% and still give them a little cargo space for long road trips. highway cruising it could probably be enough to run the whole trip on gas making going long distances in reasonable amounts of time realistic.