> a lockup torque converter or a fully engaged clutch is more efficient than the combination of an electric generator and a motor.
I doubt it, generators and motors operate at 99% efficiency. Do you have any reference?
> if you have four independent electric motors, you can only ever send 25% of available torque to one wheel, if you have front, rear, and center lockers, you can send 100% of torque to one wheel.
That assumes that engines are so small that they operate at 100% under normal conditions. This doesn't have to be the case, electric engines are so small, you can have bigger-sized engines where one single engine can use all the power. The nature of electric engine is such that the loss of efficiency by doing this is minimal. Plus you need to do this only fractions of the time, so the engine doesn't have to be designed to operate in high power mode at full duty cycle.
> I doubt it, generators and motors operate at 99% efficiency. Do you have any reference?
A locked up torque converter or an engaged clutch is basically a solid steel bar. You're the one that is going to need to provide sources that show an electric generator and motor, operating in series, are 99% efficient across a wide operating range. (you won't find that that's true).
>That assumes that engines are so small that they operate at 100% under normal conditions. This doesn't have to be the case, electric engines are so small, you can have bigger-sized engines where one single engine can use all the power. The nature of electric engine is such that the loss of efficiency by doing this is minimal. Plus you need to do this only fractions of the time, so the engine doesn't have to be designed to operate in high power mode at full duty cycle.
Look up the efficiency of electric motors running outside of their optimum power/rpm ranges. Also, you basically just said that you can get around a percentage problem by increasing the coefficient, which kind of misses the point. Also, if you're going to put four motors, you're probably doing that because you want to put them in the hubs, (if you're putting them inboard, you'd just use one or two motors and put a differential in there, like Tesla does), if you're putting motors in your hubs you want the smallest motors you can get away with, because larger motors increase unsprung weight.
I doubt it, generators and motors operate at 99% efficiency. Do you have any reference?
> if you have four independent electric motors, you can only ever send 25% of available torque to one wheel, if you have front, rear, and center lockers, you can send 100% of torque to one wheel.
That assumes that engines are so small that they operate at 100% under normal conditions. This doesn't have to be the case, electric engines are so small, you can have bigger-sized engines where one single engine can use all the power. The nature of electric engine is such that the loss of efficiency by doing this is minimal. Plus you need to do this only fractions of the time, so the engine doesn't have to be designed to operate in high power mode at full duty cycle.