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Hey Stiletto2,
Actually the hybrid drive is really not that difficult to implement. The component weight is light also. In my vehicle for example The electric motor weighs a wopping 35lbs, Controller is 6lbs and the batteries a mere 50lbs. In the set up I proposed the ICE and electric drives would be independent from each other linked only by the ground. You can find a similar setup in theory although swapped electric powering the single rear wheel in the XR3 hybrid plans. Things always have a way of seeming difficult and expensive until you decide to find a way to make it otherwise!
In order to make it worth while the car has to be light 1,200lbs or less and aerodynamic in fact extremely aerodynamic like a cd of 1.4 or better. This allows a 2 cylinder or 1 cylinder diesel with a 10kw continuous -20kw peak electric motor to be used with only a 2 kwh battery pack! This gives you a descent battery only range in excess of 20 miles or better depending on how you drive. If you are like me and drive like a G-PA you could probably get about 30 miles EV only! The VW XL1 I think has around a 4kwh pack and gets about a 40 mile range but its cd is higher and weight is also higher than what I propose.
The ultimate point is to use less fossil fuel and take control or have the option to take control of our transportation driving fuel source. If you stick with gas then you are at the mercy of the pump gods :-) If you go diesel well you have Bio fuel options and if you add electricity then you have the ability to charge up at home where you can install your own PV arrays and produce a cleaner energy source.
There was a guy back in the day in Minnesota who build a 1 cylinder gas 3 wheeler that also used a CVT from a snowmobile. I think it was called the HMV Freeway. Anyways it did ok in the snow with its single rear wheel drive and 12 or 16 hp single cylinder gasser. The 12hp version also got over 100mpg. I think it weighed around 700lbs if I recall so just a little micro car but they built and sold about 700 of them until they went out of business. I sometimes see them on Ebay. They also offered EV only and a diesel option which was never built to my knowledge. It would be interesting to see what a 13hp single cylinder diesel could do mpg wise with one of these guys compared to the gasser 12hp!
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