World’s First Hybrid Electric Sports Car Powered by a “Jet Engine”

It is surprising how we have come across a slew of articles on low-emission green cars and hybrid vehicles in recent times. Up until quite recently the challenge was to develop a hybrid or electric car purely for its functionality. The trend seems to be headed in a different direction now. A number of very exotic looking hybrid sports cars with very imaginative designs have invaded our thoughts now and one such idea that was realized recently will be the subject of discussion in this post.

The CMT-380: the world’s first hybrid-electric sports car powered by a microturbine!

For those of you who might now be wondering…

A microturbine is a type of combustion turbine that generates a combination of heat and electricity on a small scale. They can generate from less than a kilowatt to tens or hundreds of kilowatts. They are a promising new technology for many green applications and for powering hybrid-electric vehicles.

Many advantages set them apart from regular combustion engines like the internal combustion engine that is commonly used in motor vehicles.

Advantages?

1. High power to weight ratio
2. Less number of moving parts
3. Lower emissions
4. Higher efficiency
5. Compact size and lightweight
6. Waste heat can be recovered easily leading to efficiencies of up to 80%
7. Low cost and effort on maintenance

The CMT-380 is therefore the world’s first hybrid-electric sports car that uses a C30 microturbine in place of a regular combustion engine or electric motor. This is basically a small jet engine and it can generate 30 kilowatts by turning the small turbine at 96,000 rpms.

Performance stats of the CMT-380…

1. 240 horsepower electric car
2. 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds
3. Maximum speed of 150 mph
4. 500 mile range (80 miles on electricity)

In spite of the potential the microturbine technology is still comparatively more expensive and does not have the proven track record of combustion engines. However the promise of a greener and cleaner alternative alone is sufficient to give this technology the chance it richly deserves.

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News and images via: NWAutos, Autoblog, Capstone