Why not a turbine powered hybrid car similar to an aircraft APU?

Question

Ok so with all of the inefficiencies of the reciprocating internal combustion engine why don’t they make a hybrid car powered by a small centrifugal turbine that would work like an aircraft APU. The car would have an all electric drive system and the turbine would produce electricity for the electric motor. The FADEC computer would control fuel flow to the turbine as more power was needed. Trains have been doing this for decades so why not cars? A plus would be that you could use any liquid or flammable gas for fuel.

Ok some peolpe missing the piont it is an electric car not driven directly by the turbine but buy the electricity produced by a generator connected to the turbine so no change in RPM the generator would run at the same RPM for optimal electrical production a change in load would just reqiuer more fuel

Answer 1

go to www.evcanada.org then click on links. there is mention of a turbine / hybrid. it suffered the same fate as the EV-1 While you are in that site, enjoy, there is plenty to read about.

Answer 2

Turbines are not any more efficient than a reciprocating engine. They are just much lighter for the power they produce. Weight is not as much of a factor in a car as it is in an airplane. Turbines are also much more expensive, so you'd need a huge increase in performance or economy to justify the cost. Trains may be using them but a train has a fairly constant power demand. A hybrid car is shutting off the engine on a regular basis. This leads to the other problem with using a turbine, they take a fair amount of time to start and stop. They run at very high RPM and temperatures, so you can't just turn it on instantly, you have to spend time and fuel getting it running. There is also a lag of up to one second between power demand and power delivery on a turbine. The reason large aircraft use turbine APU's is because they already have jet fuel on board and just need enough juice to get the big turbines going. After that the APU is no longer needed. In the case of a hybrid system a reciprocating engine is actually better, it plays to the strengths of the engine.

Answer 3

Reciprocting engines are far from effecient, but a turbine engine is nothing more than a big honkin' blow torch. Much of the heat generated goes out the back unused. In 1963 or 64 Chrysler built a few turbine engined cars using a Ghia build body. They used a conventional drive train with automatic tranny though. Besides terrible fuel economy, another problem was when you stopped behind one at a stop sign, the immense amount of heat exiting the exhaust would blister the chrome on your car's bumper.