Audi is trialling an experimental electric turbocharger.

A press of a crude plastic button that looks like it came from the set of the 1970s TV show Thunderbirds – rather than a slick-looking luxury car – is all that’s required to feel the difference.

I’m driving an inconspicuous Audi A6 sedan that happens to be a test bed for future technology.

It looks like a parts-bin special inside, but it’s what’s under the bonnet that counts.

It has a V6 engine with two turbochargers – not that unusual, except one is attached to the exhaust (as per normal) while the other is electric.
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At the press of the button, it spins up to 9000rpm so that when I floor the accelerator there’s no delay in power.

The result is astounding. It gives instant shove off the line, similar to an electric car, and then the exhaust-driven turbo takes over.

I then sample the car with the electric turbo switched off and it feels like sand would slip through an hourglass more quickly than this thing would get off the line. I’m sold.

Audi says you can fit an electric turbocharger to cars with one or two conventional turbos – but says it has not yet confirmed the technology for production.

The company says electric turbocharger technology is just an experiment for now.

But it cycled dozens of journalists from around the world through the car at a technology preview in Munich, so presumably Audi wasn’t doing this purely for the fun of it.

Our guess is that’ll be in showrooms within the next year or so.

One last surprise: the car I was driving was a turbo diesel V6. I would have bet my life it was a V8 petrol engine, so convincing was the performance – and the (artificial) sound.

source: smh.com.au

Cue Ebay knockoffs....

I always thought it might come in handy one day in conjunction with something else. On its own, it is useless. Something along the lines of using an electric supercharger that has the capability to push enough air to spool up the turbo charger to reduce turbo lag?

why dont they just run positive displacement charger if they dont want lag??

A rather large can of compressed air in the boot?

A rather small can of nitrous under the glove box?

there.

and ebay has been trialing electric turbos / superchargers for years. cheap too

This is my understanding. "Turbo chargers" are more efficient than "super chargers" since turbo chargers use waste energy to increase power output, while super chargers leech good energy to increase power output. So in the world of creating more efficient motor vehicles (not just based on fuel efficiency), turbo chargers are the way to go.



Compressed air or nitrous requires refill, unless you have an air compressor installed, but for the extra kick whenever you feel like it, I guess this is a much better option.

If they can make a highly efficient and reliable electric motor that can produce enough air flow to give it a good kick, I'll welcome it. However, as you introduce more moving parts, more s**t can go wrong. If the electric motor is used to spool up the turbo charger...I can already see a complete failure of the electric motor fan some how breaking and throwing shards of whatever it's made off into the turbo charger impeller.

What if it wasn't just a second fan, but an electric motor with a belt or chain to drive turbo until the exhaust can catch up. I can see this being effective, but it would require a new turbo design. On the plus side, if it fails, not a lot can go wrong.

1) Put a a filter between the inferior electric motor and the turbo to contain any failures
2) The Audi uses 2 turbo's (one conventional, one electric). The 2nd could simply be directly driven from the electric motor - they don't really elaborate.

Would be interesting to see what the final results are in either case.

I love seeing progress like this in the automotive industry, gives me something to look forward to in the years to come.

Loving that.

However, my original comment was relatively tongue in cheek (stirring up conversation, as you do), to keep all the energy saving greenies happy - How about using BRAKING POWER in the WHEELS to produce compressed air reserves. Kinetic energy storage at it's least harmful.

Yes folks, you read it here first.

My way out of my $5 a day existence has been discovered - Using the braking force of forward momentum to produce compressed air for instant forced aspiration application.

Please note that although this is posted in a public forum that all legal (or otherwise) brunt of my displeasure will be bought upon those who try to take this idea without sharing my 12.5% minimum share of company, profit and licensing. I am not interested in sharing any debts incurred in development processes. Just so we are clear.

As opposed to your internal combustion engine which requires a huge wopping tank of petrol or LPG (god forbid, CNG) in your boot that costs the earth to fill?

There have been electric turbo charges for a while now.

The last thing I read was a company had separated the turbine side from the compressor
The turbo was used to drive a highly efficient generator and compressor was driven by an electric motor and also housed a storage device for power.

The result was instant boost as the compressor motor was driven from stored power and then as the turbine got up to speed and then recharge the storage and supplied power to the compressor motor directly.

it was said that because the turbine didn't need too be small to generate early boost, exhaust flow wasn't restricted like you see in a conventional turbo, that efficiency was better along with a number of other benefits.

The technology probably isn't durable enough for road cars yet, but Audi has taken the first step to bring it to market.

I had an idea ages ago to have a clutched, belt driven turbo that would be driven by the motor at the start then the clutch disengages to allow the turbo to spin freely with the exhaust.