WTF!!! That’s all I got to say about this!
Microturbine? WHen is micro nuclear-power coming?

LOL. Two companies, not even in the car business, take a kit car and kicks GM’s sorry ass! Gotta love it.

Nice looking car, I wonder what the cost will be. Judging by the type of car a lot more than what a Volt would go for.

My first question would be, can the diesel powered microturbine power the wheels directly … as in skip in the heavy batteries filled with hazardous chemicals. Sure, the car might not be as fast or as fuel efficient. But it would probably be more environmentally friendly.

Doesn’t Leno have a microturbine powered motorbike?

I hope that’s not a microturbine …. ’cause his bike melts the plastic bumper off any car that gets too close.

In fact, it’s a helicopter turbine:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/1302876.html?page=2

What did Electronic Arts do in the project? Did they build the driver interface or something? They are only mentioned in the first line, so I’m curious.

ABC, in this case, the answer is no. However, I’m sure Capstone could pull that off.

What will really drive vehicles like this forward is the idle time at stop lights. The generator will continue to charge the batteries while the car is not in motion, bringing back the torque on takeoff, which is better than just idling for naught.

However, my concern is with the “smart” street lights that BMW is working on in Germany. Those traffic lights will cause a significant decrease in fuel economy for hybrids and EVs. Without regenerative braking and charging while waiting at a light, hybrid fuel economy is bested by TDI.

I believe this microturbine business will be phenomenal in such an application, just because of the nature of both the turbine and the series hybrid. However, I also think it’ll be WAY too expensive to make it relevant in the general auto markets. the tolerances are just too tight on a turbine engine to make it cheaply enough for mass production.

I think the problem with using any kind of turbine to power a car directly is a lack of low-end torque. Think about a jetliner… go full throttle on takeoff and it is 10 seconds before the thing even starts moving.

Thought I recognized the Factory Five kit car. Now, where did I put my flux capacitor again?

this is a great idea, turbines have great power to weight ratios, a turbine providing power to a high output system makes sense

Cardemon04,

I’ve been looking at the cost of turbine for a couple of years and the answer is pretty basic. The Tesla Turbine. it’s so simple you could make one for kicks, out of a stack of CDs or DVDs. A real one could be made with Ceramic or titanium disks. and the tolerances are between the discs, and maybe the housing, instead of thousands of small parts. Spacing is as simple as a washer of the desired thickness or a raised lip on the axle bore of each disk.

My only problem is finding a good compressor. I’ve looked into almost everything that made sense. The Star Rotor (See Star Rotor Corporation) offers the best overall solution. However, using a Tesla Turbine as a compressor has been worked on.

The cost of such an engine should be in line with modern piston engines. After all how much does it cost to stamp out a bunch of disks? But again the biggest question for me is the Compressor. The Combustion unit, should be fuel flexible or agnostic and I’m leaning on flame-less, for cleanliness.

1.21 Jigawatts!

@RaineMan,

Leno has a turbine powered motorcycle. The Allison C250 engine is from an old helicopter.

A small turbine only works in this application if it’s going at a constant speed. That’s where it’s thermodynamically most efficient, but it won’t be as efficient as an I/C engine. As others have noticed, a turbine does take a while to spool up, thus it’s really not optimal to hook it up mechanically, even with 40 years of transmission development since Detroit toyed with the idea back in the 50s and 60s.

Capstone may use automotive turbocharger “cores” where the tolerances are tightest which mitigates some of the cost concerns.

Fugly p o hybrid tree hugging sheeeeeeeeeeeet….

@Blakkar, could you use turbine from Abrams? Then you can omit batteries. Perhaps fuel consmption would be an issues, but hey you bolt 120mm gun to it!

Found a site that says small microturbines cost $1100 per kW.

“Microturbine capital costs range from $700/kW for larger units to approximately $1,100/kW for smaller ones. These costs include all hardware, associated manuals, software, and initial training.”

This vehicle uses a 30 kW microturbine.

“The car, which is powered by lithium batteries and a 30kW microturbine engine has the specs of a half way decent sports car.. 0-60 in 3.9 sec, 150mp top speed along with the advantages of a hybrid electric.. 500 miles on a single tank of diesel or biodiesel and up to 80 miles on pure battery power.”

Add it up and you get $33,000 just for the powerplant. So now we know how much dungheap knows.

Hopefully the prices can come down because this would be an excellent powerplant for the Volt. BUT by the time the cost is reasonable I am sure we will have quick charge batteries that can go 300 miles and the extended range Volt tech will no longer be needed. (15 years?)

There is a reason that man settled on the internal combustion engine for automotive use over 100 years ago.

#1: Inexpensive
#2: Efficient
#3: Durable
#4: (Relatively) Easy to maintain

Any hybrid or different approach is like trying to reinvent the wheel…

I believe in a non-performance vehicle such as the volt a much smaller turbine would be sufficient(possibly as low as 15kW), but that’s still $15k for turbine + $6k(guess) for battery… that’s over $20k before you get to any other part of the car. It would likely be very efficient, just not economical.

Raineman, you forgot #5: Gas WAS cheap.

Time was, in my life time, you could fill a tank for under ten bucks. Our parents could tell you for less that five bucks to fill a tank. Now even in a small car it can cost upwards of $30 on a good week.

That was really the main reason the ICE took hold and still is. But as this factor continues to diminish, new engine designs used more efficiently are and will take root.

Also it isn’t really reinventing the wheel. It is more getting the “other” wheel up to speed. Electric cars existed before Gas cars and there were even a few GEVs very early in the history of the automobile.

Again cheap gas won the day for the ICE and now it is the ICE’s biggest nagging woe.