I know if I were in charge I’d have tossed in some loud V8 lump, ala Corvette blender. I guess that’s why I’m not an engineer, or an environmentalist.

Powering a generator, however, is a less constrained task. You can design an engine to do this one particular task that results in a much more efficient system (e.g. by pushing the torque in the low-end, trying to cram as much of it in the efficiency band, etc.).

I realize that this is a logistical nightmare, but there’s got to be a decent 3-cylinder diesel or gas engine that fits this criteria so that you can leverage existing QA and durability…

What irks me is the claim it gets 100 mpg. It does – for the first 100 miles. 50 miles on battery power alone, then the engine kicks in, and you consume some fuel for a rough average of 100 mpg. But it’s not really 100 mpg because the engine wasn’t running for half that time. And after that point who knows what it gets for mileage.

All being said, his idea is a goodun – use a locomotive style hybrid, where the petrol engine ONLY serves as a charger for the electric motor. That’s right, the gas engine has nothing to do with driving the wheels. Why didn’t anyone else think that this might be a good idea, seeing how it’s been used on submarines and diesel trains for over 60 years?

He used to work for BMW, in Bangle’s team. Remember the Z8?

I wonder if he’s worried about relying on GM for the engine, especially since it looks like some of GM’s suppliers and satellite industries are starting to go down already.

Fair enough. True delta can keep Fisker appraised of the issues he needs to work on.

This is what Mazda was aiming for when they redesigned the Mazda6. If only they’d had more inches and more manufacturing cost to play with.

I do wonder what they’re going to do to get luxury-sedan levels of NVH out of the Ecotec.

Finally, can someone explain why this is tagged a 2009?