Jaguar, Land Rover win UK funding for jet turbine EV research

By Matt Brogan | January 29th, 2010

As car manufacturers struggle to achieve a desirable range from their electric vehicles, Jaguar-Land Rover and a consortium of UK technology companies may have found a solution – in the form of a new turbine-powered range extender.

The turbine-based range extender uses a small jet turbine capable of burning a wide range of fuels to generate electricity and in turn extend the range of their electric vehicles. JLR, together with Bladon Jets and SR Drives, won approximately AUD$2 million in funding this week from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board to develop the technology.

Advantages of the axial-flow micro turbine technology include compact size, light weight, and low cost. While turbines have proven unrealistic for primary drive systems in personal vehicles due to a lack of low-end torque, noise, expense, and high fuel consumption, using a tiny unit to provide on-board recharging of electric batteries appears to be a legitimate solution.

JLR’s predecessor Rover Company dabbled in jet-powered cars in the 1950s, including the JET1 (pictured above), the first ever jet-powered passenger car. The car was capable of 142km/h at 50,000 rpm, and could run on petrol, paraffin, and diesel. The JET1 concept spawned a race car developed with BRM Formula One that race legend Graham Hill co-drove at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, averaging almost 174km/h and topping out at 230km/h. The technology proved too inefficient and expensive for production-car use, however.

The consortium of companies behind the micro-turbine tech says it can save weight and reduce CO2 emissions (slightly) over a conventional petrol-powered range-extending piston engine. Bladon Jets, developer of the micro turbine, says the engine is just 5 per cent of the size, weight and parts count of a typical piston engine.

It is estimated that it will be between five and 15 years before we see the technology in road-going vehicles.

With Motor Authority

Ray

It sounds like a very good idea if the technology is available now or in the very near future. With 5 to 15 years waiting period, the battery life and recharge time may improve so much that electric cars may not need range extender at all.
john

Very interesting. It is a bit on the wild side of things but you have to look everything not matter how weird it is s surpose. It could be very interesting when it comes to the heat side of things though they have 15 years to play with it.
matt_b

cool, just cool
Shak

Well we all thought things like diesel and hydrogen were wierd 15 years ago, and now look at things. This will be very interesting to see in 15 years time. But for an E-REV i still belive small VW-esque 1.4 turbo’s are the way for now. But in 15 years we shall see.
Simon

Aircraft have been using this technology for years to provide power and “bleed” air (compressed air) to run the air-cycle machines (airconditioner) on the ground for years. They are called Auxiliary Power Units (APUs). Seems like a perfectly fitting application given they can be optimised to run at a fixed speed.
tommo617

Volvo had a very similar idea back in the early 1990s with its Environmental Concept Car.

Apparently the turbine can run at its most efficient speed as it is not directly linked to the driving wheels (which rendered gas turbines ineffective for circuit racing other than at Indy)

An interesting idea.
fabs

I have heard that some people (eg Dean Kamen the Segway dude) are trying out stirling engines for the same purpose.