[Dean Kamen]’s company, the people behind the Segway, have created a hybrid car that uses a Stirling engine instead of a standard internal combustion engine. Stirling engines are closed cycle, indicating heat is applied to the outside of the cylinder walls. They are normally a lot more efficient than standard car engines, but haven’t been used much outside of industrial applications. We suspect that the drivetrain arrangement is similar to the Chevy Volt where the engine is used to charge batteries which are in turn driving an electric motor. This is different from modern hybrids that can have either electric motor or gas engine driving the wheels. The post is regrettably full of classic [Kamen] hyperbole and minimal detail. He calls the Stirling engine “an insurance policy” for the electric car considering that it can recharge the battery. That’s right, folks. If you run out of juice, you can put gas in the car. I doubt lots of Prius owners will fall out of their chair over that. Being a Stirling engine, we’d be a lot more impressed if you could charge the thing by rubbing warm toast on it.
[via Make]