[Christ]

Originally Posted by Allch Chcar

350 Amps huh? So about 5kw under acceleration. 1.45 atmospheres on a 1.2l is nice.
350 amp burst for what? a half minute? It could work if the electronics were all taken care of and you used a big enough battery pack.

The problem with the "electric superchargers" was that they were simply a leaf blower mounted to the intake. If they were driven more like a true turbo/supercharger system tied to the throttle and RPM and the electrical system was upgraded for the large power demand it could work. The main problem is that 5kw is being used to feed more air into the engine. It's on a 12volt system for which that amperage is too high for more than a few brief bursts like the starter. The solution is to use a higher voltage motor or bigger batteries. A 48volt motor with 4- 12volt batteries with 25amp/hour capacity would provide about 10 minutes of boost per charge. You really only need a few minutes at a time but the pulse amperage is really dependent on the battery.

If it means using a 5kw motor to boost the engine's displacement, you know people are going to take the boost over using a 5kw motor to the wheels.

Foolishly, of course, because no one will actually do the math. They'll hear the word "boost" and jump on it. Of course, one could downplay the idea by calling the IMA system "boost" as well, since that's one of it's potential uses - to give a "boost" in acceleration for short "bursts". Kind of like E-Nitrous.