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Old 04-12-2015, 07:43 PM   #17 (permalink)
Astro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary View Post
VW transaxle with garret turbine engine.

This is what I saw! It's hooked to a 4 speed transmission.
That's bit of a beast.

It's about 10 times the capacity of the micro turbine.
At a max of 40,800 RPM it is going to be noisy all over the audible range.
The slow RPM response of a turbine is going to make it interesting when parking.
It would be one of those things that are cool to play around with but not something you would want to use regularly or as your main transport. As the eBay listing suggests, more a dune buggy / sand rail sort of thing. Even then, the noise probably would be quite annoying to both the driver and any spectators after a short time.

I imagine that for the range extending duties on an EV, using the micro turbine would reduce/remove these issues.
The RPM is much higher so shouldn't be too loud (dogs may disagree ).
Small size may allow mounting in the EV rather then requiring a trailer.
Runs at a single speed, it's most efficient RPM. Slow RPM response wouldn't matter.
Of course these are all guesses.
The refinements in the technology are recent enough that there would be few examples to look to. Range extending rather than full hybridising an EV using a micro turbine has probably not been tried. Maybe because it won't work or is impractical or maybe because the technology has been too expensive or unavailable until now.
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