Obrist-Tesla: The better electric car

For many, the battery electric car seems to be the Egg of Columbus. However, the problem of energy storage has not yet been satisfactorily solved. Moreover, the electric car will only be climate-neutral if electricity production and battery manufacture are sustainable.

Two-cylinder combustor as generator
The Tesla Model Y Hyper-Hybrid, a test vehicle from the engineering company Obrist in Lustenau, can do even better. Its serial hybrid drive operates with a rather small battery and a small-volume two-cylinder internal combustion engine that acts as a generator to provide additional power for the drive motor.

The highlight here is that this range extender is powered by synthetically produced e-methanol. Obrist calls the fuel a-fuel. Ten percent of the CO2 that is filtered from the ambient air and used to produce the fuel is diverted and disposed of in the earth's interior. There it is bound in the rock and thus removed from the environment. The Obrist Tesla can therefore boast that it no longer pollutes the environment, but frees it from 24 grams of CO2 per kilometer.

Drives like a normal electric car
In driving mode, the Obrist Tesla behaves like a normal electric car. Drive is always via the 120 kW electric motor to the rear wheels only. The range extender then provides additional energy at higher speeds. In the test vehicle, a restrained, non-disturbing whirring noise is audible.

Charging at the socket or station
Range worries are a thing of the past. Like a conventional plug-in hybrid, the Tesla Hyper Hybrid can draw energy for driving from both the wall socket and the gas pump.

However, the vehicle is not yet ready for series production. The Tesla is also only an experimental vehicle. Obrist is currently in talks with carmakers, fuel manufacturers and politicians.

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