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Frank,
I understand the issues of a series hybrid, but they have advantages that outweigh the problems I think. A mechanical drivetrain means that the RPM of the engine must be varied, and it must idle. The engine in a series hybrid runs at a single RPM into a fixed load, so it only needs to meet the *average* load; not the peak. So, the engine itself can be much smaller to begin with, and this then saves weight and size on the related systems.
Ken Fry talks about only having to run the engine half of the time while driving; even when starting with say only 30% charge at the beginning of the drive. Running the engine for *half* the drive at it's peak efficiency the whole time sounds like it is going to be a lot more efficient to me.
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