Automotive powertrain manufacturing and development company Ricardo has been trying out an innovative system called HyBoost over the last four years. It employs an electric supercharger that always pumps air into the engine’s turbocharger so that the latter can run at optimum efficiency and for more of the time.
It draws its juice from a bank of supercapacitors mounted in the trunk, and its purposes are “torque-fill” and an improvement in both efficiency and performance.
Complicated software (that works seamlessly) is what makes it all come together – it’s probably Ricardo’s most notable contribution, since all of the components used together are already proven, and it’s this very combination that they’re in that makes it a unique proposition.
Oh, and there’s also talk of a 47 percent improvement in efficiency in the 1.0-liter EcoBoost Ford Focus that Jay Leno recently tested out of his garage.
Check out the video after the virtual jump, as it’s best to let him and the company representatives explain what this is all about.
By Andrei Nedelea
VIDEO