Subaru has filed a second patent with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for a compact turbine engine designed to work inside an extended-range electric vehicle. The idea sounds wild, but the company’s deep roots in aerospace make it less far-fetched than you might think. If this technology ever reaches production, it could offer a genuinely different answer to the biggest problem facing EVs today: limited driving range.
- Subaru appears to be serious about putting a turbine engine in a car, having filed a second patent related to turbine power systems for vehicles.
- In this setup, the turbine doesn’t drive the wheels directly but acts as a generator to charge the high-voltage battery in an EREV (extended-range electric vehicle) layout.
- The new patent addresses backup startup procedures, including lowering the target RPM from 25,000 to 20,000 so the turbine can be started using the car’s standard 12-volt electrical system.
Why Turbines in Cars Failed Before
The idea of putting a turbine in a car isn’t new. Chrysler’s turbine engine program began during the late 1930s and produced cars that could run on many fuels and required less maintenance than piston engines, but they were much more expensive to produce. Between October 1963 and January 1966, Chrysler ran a user program with 203 drivers across 133 U.S. cities who collectively drove over a million miles, revealing problems like a complicated starting procedure, lackluster acceleration, and poor fuel economy.
Downsides of turbine engines for cars include extreme noise, seriously hot exhaust, wasteful fuel consumption at idle, and long startup times. Those issues killed the idea for decades. But Subaru thinks the EREV formula changes the math in a big way.
How the Subaru Turbine Patent System Works
The new Subaru turbine patent confirms the company is seeking real engineering solutions for starting and controlling a compact turbine that works as a generator. Turbines are poorly suited for conventional cars due to high fuel consumption under variable loads, but in a stationary generator mode, they can be more compact and run more economically.
Subaru’s approach uses the same trick that piston-powered hybrids already use: a second electric motor-generator. Most hybrid cars have two electric motors, with the second motor hooked directly to the engine to fire it up instantly. Subaru hopes this same principle will fix the slow-start problem that has plagued turbines for years.
An earlier patent described a system where the traction motor spins up the generator to bring the turbine to operating speed at around 25,000 RPM. The new filing reveals a backup scheme where, if the high-voltage battery is heavily depleted, the system lowers the target spin speed to approximately 20,000 RPM and uses the car’s standard 12-volt electrical system to get things going. That prevents a worst-case scenario where you’re stranded because the main battery is too dead to fire up the turbine.
The setup includes two batteries: the main high-voltage pack and an auxiliary 12-volt unit that can start the turbine even when the main battery is low, resulting in less frequent turbine operation but larger energy top-ups per cycle.
Subaru’s Aerospace Background Gives This Idea Real Weight
Most people think of WRX rally cars and all-wheel-drive Outbacks when they hear “Subaru.” But the company has a direct connection to aviation that stretches back over a century. Subaru’s roots trace to 1917 and the Aircraft Research Laboratory, which later became Nakajima Aircraft. Today, the Subaru Corporation still makes utility and attack helicopters for the Japanese Self Defense Force, unmanned aerial vehicles, and the center wings of Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 jets.
That experience with turbine-based powerplants in aircraft gives Subaru a technical edge that most car companies simply don’t have. Turbine engines have higher power-to-weight ratios than piston engines and can be physically smaller. They’re also more reliable, have fewer moving parts, and can even produce cleaner emissions because combustion is more complete. In an EREV layout where the turbine runs at a constant speed to charge the battery, many of its traditional automotive downsides fade away.
Will a Turbine Subaru Actually Reach the Road?
Patent filings don’t guarantee production, and companies often file patents just to protect intellectual property. That’s always worth keeping in mind. But two patents on the same theme suggest Subaru’s engineers are putting real thought into this.
CarBuzz has speculated that Subaru may expand its lineup to include extended-range plug-in hybrids, potentially using this turbine generator technology. These vehicles would travel 100 miles or more on plug-in battery power before the combustion engine kicks in to recharge on the go. Experts are already comparing Subaru’s idea with Mazda’s approach, where a rotary engine serves as a generator for hybrids. If this technology reaches production, the market could get a distinctly new kind of hybrid.
Whether or not a turbine Subaru ever rolls off an assembly line, the concept is fascinating. A compact, lightweight generator that charges your EV’s battery while you drive, built by an automaker that literally builds jet parts for a living? That’s the kind of engineering story worth paying attention to.
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