Supercharged Prius in the future?

Here is a link to a guy in California that put a turbo to his 2000 Honda Insight > Welcome Turbo Willie! - CleanMPG Forums

Willie says he benefits from the $1000 DIY turbo than Honda's IMA....the turbo adds 20hp vs 5hp for the IMA, although this comparison slights the low-speed electric torque.

Willie do get better fuel economy as he AFAIK drives with the pack, but the main benefit as with any after market turbo is performance.

I allow a turbo to get seriously better fuel economy, the turbo needs to go on an otherwise undersized engine - that's what Ford is doing with it's Eco-Boost...it does roughly what Honda's IMA was supposed to do without concerns about battery supply or battery failure...the general public won't be afraid of it, it can easily be mass-produced, and it will save fuel.

My concern with a turbo in a hybrid is will the autostop burn up it up? Maybe it's different in a supercharger, but the ICE occasionally shuts down and the turbo is still spinning at 1000's of RPMs.

My suggestion is an electric supercharger - one lot's more sophisticated than the ones that can be ordered online that may merely be a cheap 12v blowdryer.

 

An electric turbo -might- make some sense if run of the traction battery, at least it would make more sense than trying to run it off of 12 volts.

If non-electric, to deal with the shutdown issues, there are turbos with watercooled bearing sections that could be sized to protect the lube from coking in heat soaked bearings after shutdown. If necessary, an electric oil pump could keep some lube flow to the turbo after the engine was shut down.

 

^ I've looked at electric turbos.

While I'm no subject matter expert, my gut feeling is an effective electric turbo is going to be a serious draw that would need to tap the traction pack or if it's a non-hybrid, maybe add a second 12v battery.

 

Plenty of room under the car for a rear-mount turbo.

Squires Turbo Systems - Turbocharged Innovation!

 

To put things in perspective... it takes considerable more power to do a semi reasonable job of supercharging a car engine than the cars starter motor can deliver. You really wouldn't want to do that job with 12 volts.

 

....more power then the starter - that's a LOT of power needed!

 

Hmmm, about the same price range as other blower and turbo kits for a Corvette. In case I ever get the desire for an easy bolt-on 150HP in my not a Prius car.