It's beginning to look more and more like Subaru is trying to put a turbine engine in a car. CarBuzz has just discovered a new patent from the company for a way to control a turbine engine and power system in a vehicle, and this isn't an accident or a one-off. It's the second time that we've found a turbine patent from the Japanese automaker. Can Subaru Soar Where Chrysler Failed? Motorious We first found a turbine patent from Subaru last September. The patent looked at using a turbine engine, what most of us would call a jet engine, as the engine in an extended range EV. Turbines are terrible in normal automotive applications, as Chrysler learned in the 1960s. But in steady-state generator-spinning use they could be more efficient.That first patent covered how to start the turbine engine more quickly, instead of requiring a long spool-up time to start making electricity. This one covers what could happen if it loses power, so it can't start up quickly but still needs to start.To start the turbine quickly, Subaru would use the high-voltage battery in the EREV and the vehicle's generator. If the battery can drive the car at full-throttle, it can spin up a turbine engine in a hurry. Since every motor is a generator, it doesn't even need extra components. The idea works a lot like using the electric motor to spin the engine to idle almost instantly the way modern hybrids do.Pratt and Whitney If there's a problem with the high-voltage battery, though, Subaru doesn't want to leave you with an expensive jet-powered paperweight. So it developed a way to also start the turbine using 12-volt power without also draining the 12V battery.The patent uses a lot of words to describe what is a simple process. When it detects the HV battery is low, instead of using that battery to spin the generator and start the turbine fast, it engages a lower-powered motor and starts it up more slowly. Making Sure Your Jet-Powered Car Can Still Get A Boost Subaru To start a turbine engine, you spin it. It isn't just like a car's engine, but it's not far off. Turbines for helicopters and aircraft use compressed air to spin the turbine and get it running. This smaller car-sized unit can use an electric motor.When it needs to start on 12V instead of high voltage, the target RPM speed is lowered. The patent suggests 20,000 rpm instead of 25,000. Combine the slower speed with taking longer to get things going, and you cut your power consumption. So now you can jump-start the turbine if need be.Aircraft turbines can be bump-started. If there is enough air flowing to spin the compressor blades, then you can use forward movement to start combustion. You probably wouldn't be able to start your Subaru EREV that way, though.Subaru and its boxer engines have always been a bit quirky. The company has plenty of experience with turbines because it builds helicopters, including an Apache attack helicopter it makes under license.Mazda has rotaries, and now Subaru might have turbines. Anything to avoid convention. And to make sure we're talking about the wild tech inventions their engineers are working on.Patent filings do not guarantee the use of such technology in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of production intent.Source: Japan Patent Office