Electric Supercharger
 

Why didn't anyone think of this before now?

Electric Supercharger Boosts Torque 50% and Reduces CO2 by 20% : TreeHugger

As is always the case with my posts, I'm curious what those wiser than me think.

I know it's not Fossil Fuel Free, but I only frequent this part of the forum. Please feel free to re-post this more appropriately if need be.

I love Torque!

Why use electric power to blow more air into the engine when you could use the motor to directly power the car? You're just introducing more efficiency losses into the system. Plus, if you couple it to the drive train you can use it for regenerative braking.

350 Amps draw while accelerating?!!? Wow, that is just about the same amounts of amps that the starter draws on a cooler day.

Good implementation of product and they have some good ideas for other things on thier website.

I bet it's going to be pricey though :(

I guess the most obvious question for me is if this can be cheaply retrofitted to existing cars?

Burning less Fossil Fuel is a step on the path to Fossil Fuel free.
All the better if it's a cheap step.

How does an electric supercharger that forces more air into the engine burn less fuel? :)

TomO -

I looked at the 220 Amps steady-state. I think my alternator is rated at 90 Amps on my 1.9L engine. I think they are hoping to target larger displacement engines :

A solution for truckers?

CarloSW2

I'm gonna play along for a second and assume it does work.

The "CO and fe gains" come from downsizing the engine i.e. put in a 1.0 where a 1.6 used to be, so no, slapping one on your wheels won't help unless you downsize the engine too.

At this point I fail to see how this offers an advantage over a turbo. Yeah, they had their pretty graph, but properly sized turbos work over different rpm ranges.

In the context of vehicle design, given the same power output, it allows a manufacturer to downsize the engine and improve average efficiency.

You just mentioned how it provides an advantage. Unless the turbo is designed to operate a low loads/speeds, and in that context limits power output, adding this, just like adding a conventional supercharger, can greatly improve low speed torque.

I understand that, but he was talking about bolt on things that help FE. At least thats the way I read it.