turbine efficiency
 

Maybe this is partly in our future? A turbine-hybrid Jaguar. Of course this one is a super-car, but even with over 700hp it claims to still get over 30mpg. What if the same concept was used in a car that wasn't built so ridiculous???

Turbines can be much more efficient then gas engines and diesel engines. And the advantage of using them for electric generation is that they could be run at optimum efficiency. Hmm, I so hope to drive a turbine-hybrid someday.

Thoughts? Terrible idea? Will see soon? Either way, the jag looks good...

Arghh, I didn't quite have enough "points" to add the link, but here it is:

Paris Motor Show: Jaguar C-X75 Turbine-Electric Supercar Concept! - Green Car Reports

Heres what they are using under the hood:BladonJets Multi-fuel Micro Gas Turbine Engines
Nice!

Turbines can't compete with diesels, because intermittent combustion lets an engine reach higher temperatures without melting.

I think its a great idea, using the microturbines as range extenders. As you said if you take one of the jag's four 195hp motor as and put it in a 'normal' car with only one mt doing the recharging then surely the range can only extend further both in pure electric and assisted. 28g/km of Co2 aint bad either!!!

Upon doing the maths it appears that both engines result in it doing 7.2L/100k.
Would it be safe to assume one engine would halve that in a smaller car due to lhe reduced load from aero (at our speeds!) and weight?

Sure, that must be why all those combined-cycle power plants (Combined cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) are using diesel engines rather than gas turbines. And why we see so many diesel-engined commuter aircraft flying around.

I do believe that turbines run most efficiently when they are crazy hot, but maybe they can make a small enough one that can dissipate the heat quickly. This page has a little more info on the jag, specifically that the turbines produce 188hp!

Jaguar Unveils Supercar Hybrid Concept - MSN Autos

I'm sure it needs 188hp of re-powering to keep up with the possibility of the driver doing repeated 0-60 times in the jaguar, but if any of us were driving, what would be the optimal average energy output?? I would think we could get by with 40hp or even 30hp being continuously produced. Maybe even less if they put it in a really aerodynamic car?

A couple more things I find cool is that a turbine can run at up to 60% efficiency, compared to 18-20% of our gas engines, when they aren't in idle... Also, turbines can take all sorts of fuels, including bio-fuels.

I'd like to see this concept tried out in a normal car. The exhaust gases could be used to make air stick to the skin of the car, much like we were discussing here recently. Cool!