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That hydrogen idea is actually pretty clever and new (to me at least), but I guess the question is how much hydrogen can you actually generate? It's probably not much considering the poor conversion efficiency of electrolysis, but still it's cool to think that maybe 10% of the braking energy can be turned into fuel through an alternator bypass and water tank, pretty neat!
I think the main thing holding back having the alternator do meaningful regeneration is the fact that they are regulated to 14V, which is really low. At 50V you'd be able to pump 3.5 times as much electricity, and your engine only needs to be at maybe 2300rpm to do that. If the ratio of alternator drag to engine braking is high enough the alternator could be a very effective regenerative brake. They're talking about changing the 12V electrical standard, but that might not be necessary if start stop/mild hybrid systems with their own high voltage circuits become more commonplace.
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