- A few weeks ago Kaynen, one
of our writers here on "B2B" pitched the topic of electric turbos. And I was like, that's a
cool idea, but we can't. Those things are a scam! And then our other
writer, Claire, was like, "No, they're for real, we
should definitely do that." And then I was like, I
respect both of your views, but I don't believe there's such a thing as an electric turbo. I showed them a Mighty Carmons video proving they were a scam, but then they told me
Audi has been using them for a couple of years. And then I showed them a Cletus video with an electric turbo,
but it made the car slower. But then they showed me
different Cletus video where it made the car faster. So I did a little more digging and found out there was
some truth to their claims. So I did what any adult was do, and that is admit my mistake and agreed to make this episode. Today we're gonna cover the physics of traditional turbo chargers,
talk about parasitic losses, and explain how this
once-upon-a-time eBay scam has miraculously become a legit piece of power-boosting technology. Or has it? Let's go. (jazz music) Thank you to Ekster for
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off starting April 13th. Now let's get back to some "B2B", baby. To understand electric turbos, we gotta understand traditional turbos. We all know that internal
combustion engines make power by igniting a
mixture of air and fuel. The more air and fuel that is burned, the more power that can be produced. If you want more power, you need more air. More air, plus more fuel, equals James! - More power, baby, more power, baby! More power, baby, more power, baby, more- - So how do you get more air? With a compressor. They come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share the same purpose of jamming more air into your engine. But that compressor has to
be powered by something. Superchargers with are
conceptually similar to turbos are hooked up directly to the crankshaft, while turbos are driven by exhaust gasses flowing out of the engine
in through a turbine. That turbine is directly
linked to a compressor fan. So as exhaust gasses spin the turbine the compressor spins,
pulling in extra air. Simple enough, you guys are now skilled on how to turbos and superchargers work. So conceptually electric turbochargers should work in a similar way
but instead of being powered by exhaust gasses or the crank shaft, they get powered by an
electric motor via the battery. Seems like a reasonable way
to power your compressor. So why doesn't it work? Many people might argue that the parasitic losses are too great, that the power required
to run the electric turbo was more than the power gained from it. If that was a little
confusing, don't worry, Jerry Berry's here to explain. Let's say you've got a car that, without any forced induction, produces about 200 horsepower. Now let's add a compressor that needs 20 horsepower to operate. In the case of the supercharger, that 20 horsepower load will
be applied to the crankshaft, essentially taking 20
horsepower from the engine that could've been going to the wheels. This is known as parasitic loss. The good news is that
the extra air you pump in lets you burn more fuel,
resulting in more power. In this case, 100 horsepower more. So once everything is all said and done, your 200 horsepower engine is
now producing 280 horsepower. Not too shabby. You've gotta lay down $16 a share at AMC, let it sink a little, sell some, then re-buy back at a lower price and wait for it to go back
up to the moon! (laughs) Now what if we use the turbo on the same 200 horsepower
engine instead of a supercharger? Well, a turbo doesn't pull
its power from the crankshaft, but from exhaust gasses being
pushed out of the engine. This causes back pressure, which does place a load on your engine, but in our case that might be
as little as five horsepower. The other 15 horsepower
is coming from energy that would've otherwise
been going out the exhaust. So in the end, you're up to
295 horsies, even better. A supercharger doesn't tap
into that free, recycled, would-be wasted energy
like the turbo does, which is why turbos are
so much more efficient. So what would these
parasitic losses look like in an electric turbo? If we used our example above, the 20 horsepower
required by our compressor would convert to about 15 kilowatts. That's already a big problem, because your average alternator can't even crank two kilowatts of power. But lets say that they made an alternator that could put out 15 kilowatts. We still have another problem. Alternators aren't very efficient. A decent one is about 60% efficient, so that brings us about 25
kilowatts of load to the engine, or about 35 horsepower, significantly more than the equivalent supercharger to turbo charger. However, after that 100 horsepower gain, you would still have a net
positive gain in power. The physics and math technically work out. Theoretically, an electric
turbo is totally possible, but, and there's always a
but, we have another problem. Getting 15 kilowatts
out of a 12 volt system, and most cars are running on 12 volts, draws a lot of current,
1250 amps to be exact. That's reaching the
levels a Tesla P100 draws, and that is the entire car. This is just a little
baby 15 kilowatt turbo. Doesn't make sense. If want to fix this we
would have to bring in a higher voltage system with a separate generator, battery, and cabling. Which, as you might have guessed, adds a lot of weight and in the end is gonna be less practical. and probably way more expensive than just sticking with a conventional supercharger or turbo charger. Battery tech is pretty
good these days, though, and it makes it more feasible,
at least for smaller turbos. Audi has released a few
cars with electric turbos. They come with a 48 volt system in order to power the electric
turbo's seven kilowatt motor. However, this electric
turbo is supplementing the car's other traditional turbos. This is a common trend among
OEMs exploring this tech, and it makes sense. An electric turbo can kick on quickly and provide instant boost. While a conventional turbo has to spin up from the exhaust gasses,
which can take a lot of time. You can skip the lag
with an electric turbo, then switch to the conventional
turbo once it's spooled up. Another approach to
making an electric turbo is just an electric motor
onto a conventional turbo. You can use the electric
motor to get the turbo to spool up quickly and then
let the exhaust take over. The turbo even acts as a
generator during deceleration. So yeah, all of this is
impressive and cool and all, but are those 12 volt aftermarket
systems totally bogus? Well, not entirely. - Hey guys, what's up? I've got some big news, and
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today! (laughs) Today! - There are some aftermarket
electric turbos that are legit, but they might not work the way you think. These E-turbos come with a 48 volt battery that your car charges, and then you discharge that
battery when you want to boost. So you definitely do get boost, but it's not sustained boost. It can only run for a
maximum of four minutes. Now four minutes, you can do a lot of fricken' sick burnies in four minutes. So that's plenty of time
to show off to your buds, or your girls, or your bud's girls. But you've gotta let your battery cool down and recharge after. And to get those four minutes back. You're going to have to wait 40 minutes. There it is, there's the
catch, we figured it out. So, how on earth did electric turbos leap from eBay scam to legit? Well, most of the OEM E-turbos are more likely Electronically
Assisted Turbos. And these aftermarket ones aren't a scam, but they're not as legit as
they seem at first glance. In the end, getting power
directly from the crankshaft, or better yet from wasted exhaust, is just going to be more efficient. The facts are the facts, though. Is it a turbo, yes. Well, a compressor, really, but is it solely run on electricity, yes. Does it give you boost, yes. These aftermarket electric turbos may have a lot of downsides, but if you wanna just make more power, there's actually an aftermarket turbo that'll let you do that. If I'm being for real, you
guys, it's pretty awesome. Also, just to clarify, I
wasn't wrong in that meeting, I just wasn't right. Okay, there's a difference. Thank you guys so much for
watching this episode of "B2B." If you want even more Donut content, become a Donut Underground Follower. Donut Underground's the membership for our diehard Donut fans where they can meet more car enthusiasts and get special content that we just can't show
you on the channel. You can chat with us in the Discord, you get stickers, it's a
fricken' fun-ass time, man. Thank you guys so much for watchin'. Follow us here at Donut
on Instagram @DonutMedia. Follow met at Jeremiah Burton, and until next week, bye for now.
