Electric Supercharger That May Actually Work

    I think dangerdarrell has one of these on his new Jeep.

    But isn't an 'electric turbo' just a supercharger? SC's run off engine power all the time (electric or belt driven - I can't see that it makes a difference.)

    TC's run off exhaust gases, don't they?

    Then again, maybe its all the same!


    Boost me, baby! LoL!

    The smarter you get, the funnier I am.

    Technically, anything that forces more air into the engine then it would ingest normally, would be considered a supercharger. The difference is how they are powered, with the traditional "supercharger" being powered by a belt off the engine and the "turbo" or "turbine-supercharger" being powered by exhaust energy.


    This would really be a electric supercharger. Since it is forcing more air into the engine and being powered by electricity.


    The new turbos that have electric assist in them are a neat hybrid, I guess they would be an electric-turbine-supercharger :)

    The video reminds me of the Phantom Electric Supercharger from around 5-10 years ago. He had a multiple battery system to provide short periods of high current to drive an electric motor mated to a turbo charger to provide on-demand boost only when the accelerator pedal was floored. The link at the time was http://www.phantomsupercharger.com, but that link now goes to https://www.delicioustuning.com/scion-frssubaru-brz.html.

    This guy has some old info primarily aimed at debunking electric superchargers, esp[ecially the cheap systems still seen on EBay - http://www.wildweasel.ca/HowTo/Auto/eturbo.aspx.

    IIRC, several vehicle manufacturers were interested in using an electric supercharger to provide low-end boost to a vehicle to up the power output until the main turbocharger kicked in.

    I came cross this video of an electrically-powered boost-charger, aka electric turbo -

    .

    Interesting video and results and might make sense for a low-stress setup, but the cheaper turbo kits available for the Slingshot offer more bang for the buck.

    The video is followed by a video of a dual setup. At least these guys seem to be having fun!

    Quote from Doc&Ruby

    I saw this, interesting concept but I think you would need a beefier alternator to make it work.

    There is no free lunch, you need to get the energy to drive the compressor turbine from somewhere.

    The Torqamp unit looks very similar to an electric turbo setup from the late 2000s/early teens in that both used an electric motor to power a turbo to achieve boost and both used extra batteries for higher power to the electric motor. The first unit I came across is listed here - http://www.wildweasel.ca/HowTo/Auto/eturboTest.aspx and was last listed here, although I don't know if these guys are still in business or not - https://www.delicioustuning.com/scion-frssubaru-brz.html. I don't know if the unit in the video above is supposed to be setup with the separate switch to activate boost on demand that we saw in the video, but the Phantom Supercharger used a switch on the gas pedal to trigger the electric turbo when the gas pedal is floored so that the TB would be dumping a maximum amount of fuel into the engine at the same time as boost is being demanded. Using a fully depressed gas pedal to activate boost would prevent unsafe operation by ensuring the driver has deliberately activated boost.

    Back when I first bought my Slingshot and a boosted setup stated at $5K, I was interested in an electric system to provide boost on demand during acceleration, but the system then available was still a DIY experimenter's kit as opposed to a refined system an average car owner could confidently use. With the current boost kits starting at just a little more than the Torqamp setup, I feel the conventional boost systems are more cost-effective.