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Metro I have been a proponent of electric superchargers for years as my posts here show.
Sorry for the sarcasm.
Now lets take it to another level.
Instead of a turbine type wheel in the supercharger, make it positive displacement, meaning for every revolution aspecific amount of air moves through the supercharger. Replace the throttle plate with a very light positive displacement supercharger that uses the power lost in normal throttle plate restriction and converts it to electrical energy.
Store that electrical energy and use it for supercharging when needed. If excess energy is created use it for other electrical loads or greater storage.
Most of us here rarely use full power in our engines. The actual duty cycle I would envision for an electric supercharger would be very very low, in the neighborhood of 1%, maybe even less. Meanwhile every time you would loose power with any throttle plate restriction, you would be accumulating energy for supercharger activation.
Instead of pumping losses your would have electricity generation. Now that is truly "free" energy, in the sense that it is energy otherwise lost in pumping losses. Any other method of turbocharging or mechanical supercharging has a direct energy (and efficiency) cost.
In 2004 when I first drew designs for my original engine patent, one of those configurations was a rotary engine contained within an electric motor, using the outside of the rotary engine as the core of the electric motor. Since the rotary engine could be destroked and become a free spinning flywheel, unlike the first gen insight where the electric motor spun the engine constantly, you would have a significant improvement in overall efficiency and first gen Insights are still our mileage champs.
The same principle could also apply to my infinitely variable hydraulic drive and that is something that transcends the debate of whether a vehicle is driven by electrical energy or combustible fuel.
Years ago, on this forum, I tried to propose that same situation where a vehicle could have interchangeable power generation modules, one pure electric, one internal combustion. Use the electric option for local short distance commuting and the IC option for long distance driving.
As battery technology evolves the range of the electric option increases and eventually the IC option becomes obsolete.
I have been to the Ricardo tech center in Detroit where I presented my design, before the patent was approved, in 2006 (patent approved in 2010). The Next Energy representative (Michigan state organization) listened to my presentation and when the meeting was over, the response I got from Ricardo was they were "not prepared" for the presentation. Ryan Waddington, the Next Energy representative who accompanied me to Ricardo's center told me my presentation was one of the most impressive he had ever witnessed.
That was 8 years ago.
regards
Mech
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