How far are you willing to go to give your electric vehicle (EV) more range? One man has pushed this question to the limit, adding a turbo diesel power plant to the boot of a Tesla Model S P85D - all in the name of crushing range anxiety.
The DIY project is featured on the Warped Perception YouTube channel, culminating in a 4,000+ km road trip completed with very minimal charging.
Think this setup is ingenious? Think again. The resulting noise output could annoy even the most resistant eardrums, even with a muffler installed. The mad scientist behind the video, Mat Mikka, told Insider: "[with] that constant droning in the background the entire time, you either forget about it or want to open the door on the freeway and jump out… But it got me to where I needed to go."
Noise isn't the only problem. The 19-kW diesel engine may be small, but the partially external configuration still leaves little room for efficient cooling. That means the motor's power-generating task couldn't be done as well as one would hope.
Despite that caveat, Mikka estimates the Model S could go upwards of 2,500 km on a single charge and a full tank. It only achieves about 6.7L/100 km, so there might be more work to be done there.
Mikka's next project reportedly involves a supercharged rotary engine and presumably still a Tesla. It's interesting, considering Mazda has just put its rotary engines back in production as a range extender for a hybrid MX-30. Could Mikka be on to something, after all?