Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseS
The ebay scam electric turbos are obviously a joke and not worth mentioning.
That being said, there is a potential kernel of truth in there somewhere. In recent years brushless electric motor technology has made some substantial advancements. There are commercial brushless motors that can operate at 250k rpm for extended periods. The mechanical engineering is much easier (and thus cheaper) when there's effectively no friction; the limitations on such motors are still stress & heat, but heat from electrical current rather than friction. Brushless motors are also vastly more efficient than any other type of motor.
I'm not saying it's a simple or trivial engineering feat overall, otherwise there would be brushless electric turbos being actually used in OEM engines right now. There is still a great deal of efficiency lost when producing the juice to run the turbo for one thing, but I think it's a challenge with a viable solution for those car companies that have deep R&D pockets.
* It's also worth mentioning that the spinup time on a brushless motor is really fast while the torque is very, very low. That has obvious substantial benefits for turbochargers.
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Yea, the vid was just a joke
My understanding is the next wave of F1 engines will incorporate electronic turbos, which serve the dual purpose of eliminating lag and doing re-gen with exhaust energy. The regen seems to be the main focus, but this could be due to rules + regulations, although this is just from what I've read and in no way represents a sufficiently educated opinion
How this trickles down to production engines will be interesting, but if anyone can do it, the ///M division can.