Good article.
“The better idea is to continue along the lines of hybrid vehicles which can exploit the “sweet spot” of an engine and achieve significantly higher fuel efficiency and lower emissions than either the conventional internal combustion vehicle or the all-electric vehicle.”
I have no major objection to hybrids. It seems like clever engineering. As I understand it, you brake by turning a turbine that generates electricity to be stored in a battery for later use. But I read once that producing those batteries has adverse environmental impacts. I don’t agree with the EPA that CO2 is a pollutant. So, all in all, I’m not sure that hybrids are so “green.”
Storing the lost energy from braking seems like a good idea, if the battery doesn’t happen to be full, if it saves enough to make up for the costs of any additional weight.
But where I see hybrids might be good is in city and stop and go traffic, since they can run on battery instead of idling (though I’m not sure how long they could do this when running heat/AC).
I agree, if only they didn't look like a dumpster.
What's clever is replacing the transmission with an electric motor(s). With less battery and a turbo, a hybrid would probably be a pretty good car.
I also think that the "battery" needs to be a combination of storage cells and capacitors. That might just make regenerative braking work, or at least allow the "battery" to be close to a full charge almost all of the time, and accept a charge quickly.
With a medium sized platform, a 200-300 HP 4cyl turbo, and with that power available at all four wheels, it'd probably be a good simple and fun vehicle.