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Old 03-09-2014, 06:52 PM   #6 (permalink)
wumpus
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Depends what you mean by "supercharging". Since hybrids already use electric motors to increase power, I assume you mean "driving a compressor for forced induction with an electric motor".

There are plenty of "electric superchargers" on the market. They are all scams. Superchargers are both expensive and need plenty of horsepower (I think some of the stock Mustang superchargers used ~30hp to run).
There has been at least one honest attempt to build an electric supercharager. It required its own full-sized lead-acid battery, a fairly powerful motor (although due to the available electricity, a starter motor was probably enough), and an additional alternator (to charge the battery), and all this was on top of the ordinary supercharger it turned (this whole kit would run >$10k, unlike the hundred dollar scams that tend to clog ebay).

In the end, it would make the most sense to simply use the supercharger in the normal configuration (driven by the gas engine). Nothing would prevent you from using the electric engine (and a hybrid electric engine should certainly be powerful enough, should the engineer be stuck with nowhere to run the belts, but this would require even more control software, while the gas motor would mostly regulate itself).

As far as the prius motor in the MR2, I'd certainly like to see a supercharger on it. I'd like to believe that it could be supercharged back to at least MR2-level power (only the second generation turbos really had power, this wasn't one of them) and still get great gas mileage (provided you didn't feel the need to race a miata).
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