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Dean Kamen Combines Stirling Engine With Electric Car

Posted by timothy on from the is-there-anything-kamen-can't-do? dept.

Colin Smith writes "Dean Kamen, (inventor of the Segway) has combined a Stirling engine with a battery-powered electric vehicle based on the Ford Think to provide a fully decoupled electric hybrid car which can run on any fuel which can provide enough heat to run the Stirling generator. Think are also producing a purely battery 'Think City' car which is capable of 62mph and with a range of 126miles." Some stats on the Ford Think: Top speed, 55mph; 0-30, 6.5 seconds; Range, 60 miles on battery.

2 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. Gas Turbine? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Looking at the comments here, the Sterling engine seems pretty useless still.

    So how about a gas turbine engine instead? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine

    Should provide alot more power for the heater/ac, and be able to recharge the battery on the go.

  2. Re:Couple of things bother me... by klaun · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I(sic) takes a *tremendous* amount of design work to get an internal combustion engine to "burn clean" using a single fuel; making it a "universal fuel capable" and still "burn clean" will be impossible.

    You realize that a Stirling engine is an external combustion engine, right?