- 1,115
- Rivera
- Tsukishima-TDUDT
Very promising debut from TechRules today! The AT96 is the supercar startup’s launch prototype, making its big-league entrance in Geneva after a round of testing at Silverstone and years of development in China.
The core premise is to introduce a revolutionary new turbine-recharged EV powertrain — and make it viable as a hypercar!
Of course, keen readers will recall the many turbine misadventures in automobiledom, from the Chrysler Turbine cars to the original powertrain of the canceled Jaguar C-X17 prototype.
The idea of turbines to deliver an EV charge makes perfect sense. Military vehicles have employed this tech for decades.
Functionally, the TechRules AT96 is a full EV. But the idea is that is will never, or very rarely, need to be plugged in. The turbine can kick on and hummm its way to full battery power fairly quickly. Just 15-minutes, in fact, of turbine will charge the batteries in full.
The problem with turbines has always been their sheer complexity to manufacture at scale. And, of course, their very laggy direct power delivery. This slower-than-pistons ramp-up of power production makes them unsuited for directly propelling the vehicle rapidly.
But as an on-board super-charger (so to speak), a turbine system can keep batteries fully charged at all times. This should, in theory, allow supercar-level pwerformance from the EV motors.
720-volts is the output of the AT96 — right up there with the upcoming 800V Koenigsegg Regera.
Performance of the AT96 looks scary-fast — as does its incredible track aero kit.
Welcome to the main stage, TechRules.
May you solve the turbine riddle once and for all!
Text by some unknown person from carrevsdaily.com
Specs:
No, there's no typo in the torque figure.
Also available without the wing.
