Car Tech 101: Electric turbos are coming - CNET
[MUSIC] First of all if you're unclear on turbos check out our Car tech 101 on [UNKNOWN] from episode two. And our turbos versus superchargers episode 15 segment. We can do a quick refresher on turbos right here with this Ford eco boost four cylinder. This part picks up the exhaust gas coming out of the engine and starts To spin the shaft. On the other end of that is a compressor that takes air and rams more of it into the cylinder so the environment would do naturally and that's how you get more power out of the engine because more fuel more power But there are three hang nuts to... First of all, since it's run by exhaust, which is a gas, and a compressible gas, there's a whole lot of lag when you step on the gas pedal before you get the full effect of it. Secondly, you've got an issue of size and placement. Because it runs off the exhaust, it has to live at the exhaust manifold more or less. The electric turbo seeks to answer all three of those limitations. [MUSIC] Major supplier Valeo has an electric turbo, which they happen to call and electric supercharger. This is a new thing but we covered it recently, in our episode 63 Car Tech 101 if you wanna brush up. Now once you have 48 volts, this turbo can be mounted almost anywhere. Typically close to the intake of the engine for the shortest run to push the boosted air and of course, not sitting in the exhaust path. Source: www.cnet.com
