1993 Volvo 850 Gas Turbine Electric Hybrid Prototype

Back in 1993 Volvo were experimenting with a gas turbine electric hybrid 850. Nothing unusual in gas turbines in cars, it’s been tried before, but this one tried to address the fuel consumption issue with hybrid electric drive.

Volvo built two of them and this is the only one that has been in private hands. The fact that there are only two of them will be some clue as to their success but read on.

All car manufacturers have failed to make the gas turbine work, GM famously with their ‘Jet’ cars, but Rover built some back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Howmet TX was even raced at Le Mans.

There are many advantages to a gas turbine, smooth running, low weight for the power output and pretty good with emissions. Ok, there’s no engine braking and the big problem is they like to drink fuel, comparatively, at a smaller throttle opening. Volvo came up with a rather neat idea to address this problem.

Most car manufacturers have developed hybrid vehicles. The most common is gasoline hybrid, but some diesels too. None of them partnered a set of batteries and an electric motor with a jet engine before to my knowledge.

Fitting a gas turbine to a car wasn’t such a leap for Volvo as they have a lot of experience with providing propulsion for aviation including military jets. Oddly they built engines for the SAAB fighters.

It’s also not the first time Volvo had tried this; they built a 264 saloon with a gas turbine, and it was the company’s first Environmental Concept Car (ECC) back in 1978.

Turbine only power was no longer sufficient, so they combined it with an electric motor. The turbine powered a high speed generator, which them provided current to the batteries and the motor. This means the system can be operated as electric only and the generator is also the starter motor for the gas turbine. The 850 even had regenerative braking, something which is common today, returning energy to the batteries.

Speaking of batteries, these are somewhat old tech, NiCd. If you’ve ever owned a radio controlled car then you’ll know of their limitations, and it explains why there is no luggage space in the car at all.

The rest of the car is typically 850, and a fine car it is too. The ECC hybrid was promised to be as easy to drive as a conventional car. The gear selector has familiar looking positions, P, R, N, D, L. But unlike a torque converter auto there is no creep when you release the brake.

Pushbuttons are used to select the mode of propulsion, Electric, Hybrid and Gas Turbine. In electric mode the maximum torque is available from standstill, but for maximum acceleration you’d need to select Hybrid or Gas Turbine.

The electric motor and battery charging system couldn’t save the concept. Whilst a gas turbine is a brilliant engine being small, light, smooth and in this form relatively simple in it’s construction, the fuel economy isn’t good enough compared to a piston engine.

With only 4,000 km of test track driving this car is pretty close to being new and almost unique. Remember there are two of them, this one fell into private hands and was bought from someone in Italy who was involved with building Volvo’s gas turbine / electric hybrids. It has been believed to have spent most of its life in Sweden and comes with the original Swedish numberplates and some extracts from a magazine featuring this Volvo 850.

The 850 hybrid sold recently at Bonhams Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris sale and fetched a total of € 62,100, or US $ 70,086, including buyer’s premium.

Valuing this car is very difficult, but someone was prepared to spend quite a bit to get one. The good news is that an 850 is a fine car and a really good one can be had for much less.