Jet engine range extenders for electric vehicles

In its latest report, Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025, IDTechEx claims that over eight million hybrid cars will be made in 2025, each with a range extender, the additional power source that distinguishes them from pure electric cars. Add to that significant money spent on the same devices in buses, military vehicles, boats and so on and a major new market emerges. Whereas today's range extenders usually consist of little more than off the shelf internal combustion engine
June 19, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
In its latest report, Range Extenders for Electric Vehicles Land, Water & Air 2015-2025, 6582 IDTechEx claims that over eight million hybrid cars will be made in 2025, each with a range extender, the additional power source that distinguishes them from pure electric cars. Add to that significant money spent on the same devices in buses, military vehicles, boats and so on and a major new market emerges.

Whereas today's range extenders usually consist of little more than off the shelf internal combustion engines, these are rapidly being replaced by second generation range extenders consisting of piston engines designed from scratch for fairly constant load in series hybrids. There are some wild cards like Wankel engines and rotary combustion engines or free piston engines both with integral electricity generation as explained in the unique report

However, a more radical departure is the third generation micro turbines as used by Californian Company, Wrightspeed. They have a gas turbine on-board range extender called Fulcrum. Unlike in parallel hybrid architectures, the Fulcrum does not provide direct propulsion to the drive wheels, but is used to re-charge the battery system. It was designed to transcend commercial truck efficiency and performance, providing unlimited range, reduced fuel costs and is approximately 1/10th the weight of its piston generator counterparts.
 
IDTechEx Chairman, Dr Peter Harrop comments, "This is a big step forward at the power levels needed for trucks and buses, which currently produce more pollution than cars in many countries. Others are circling too. Bladon Jets is getting economy of scale with its versions by first selling them as replacements for kerosene generators on homes and offices in the developing countries. Then it will be well placed to tackle cars such as the 7998 Jaguar Land Rover Group of its investor Ratan Tata. Their jets can be held in one hand and they have a single-piece shaft with blades made originally by spark erosion."
 
The report profiles key developers, manufactures and integrators of range extenders. Market drivers and the changing requirements for power output are analysed.

For more information on companies in this article

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