1320Fastback wrote:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Build a 1 ton, crew cab, 8' bed hybrid electric with with small turbine engine and I will buy one right now. I know I know battery technology is going to improve, I've heard it before.
I doubt you would -- turbines are expensive to purchase and maintain so that turbine driven truck would be priced out of reach.
In theory turbines can be more fuel efficient than a diesel engine, but it's hard to get that in practice in a mobile platform. With battery electric (and even hydrogen fuel cell) vehicles becoming more popular, it's very unlikely that anyone is going to spend the time/money perfecting a small turbine for vehicles.
It's been tried before without much success - even the Army is moving away from the turbine engine of the M1A1 and M1A2 in the upcoming M1A3, which will have a standard diesel engine.
I wanted to keep myself honest, so I looked up some specs. Aircraft engines are both too big and built to too high a standard for mobile use, I found a used small jet engine for $200K online, 5000 hour overhaul costs for a small jet engine run around $150K - $300K.
There are smaller hobby grade engines like the Jetcat P550-PRO-GL available for around $20K. These aren't rated to provide mechanical power, but this one is rated at 162KW power output, which is around 200HP. At full output it will burn around 20 gallons/hour, at idle, 5 gallons/hour.
In comparison, a new 250HP Cummins ISB 6.7L diesel engine would cost under $15K and you can buy an off the shelf and proven transmission to go with it. And you can get it serviced at pretty much any truck dealer, coast to coast.
