Could more intelligent airflow channeling give hybrid cars a boost?
Your idea is partly right and partly wrong. The wrong part is the idea of extracting energy from turbines in the flow. The law of conservation of energy says the energy to drive the turbines has to come from somewhere. It comes from the turbines partly blocking the air flow through the tubes, which would increase the air resistance of the car again. You can’t get energy “for free” by doing this. The good part of the idea is redistributing some of the airflow round the car by piping it from one place to another. There probably wouldn’t be much benefit doing this for normal road cars, because they are small, they already have pretty good aerodynamics – well, maybe not the US-designed cars that nobody is buying right now 😉 Any reduction in drag would be offset by the extra mass of the pipes, the increased size of the car or less space inside for the passengers, etc. However similar techniques are used to reduce drag on aircraft, and to improve fuel efficiency in jet engines. There is no
