OK. Here is how I see it and I don't know what the numbers are but here goes.....

Electric motors are much more efficient than ICE's are. But the load on the ICE is far less when recharging than when pulling the car through the drive train. Therefore the electric side of the FEH is using much less than the ICE when powering the wheels.

This is why trains and large ships are diesel electric. The diesel engine can be much smaller because it is used only to turn the generator which in turn powers the electric motor(s). Since the electric motor needs about 1/3 the energy that an similar piston engine would need to do the same work it is cheaper and more reliable to go diesel electric than it is to go purely mechanical diesel. On boats and trains there are far fewer start/stop cycles so they are more or less run at a constant speed and are well suited to these electric powered systems too.

In the case of the FEH, or any auto, we have many hills and start/ stop cycles so the hybrid system seems to be better suited for these types of operating conditions.


When you look at pure electric motors versus ICE's electrics are far more efficient with energy used thus they will go much farther on a gallon of BTU's than any other method out there .


Put another way. If it takes 360 watts to go 20 MPH for about a mile and there are 100 times that in one gallon of gas then if we had that level of energy storage in the battery pack we could go 100 miles on one gal of gas. I know of no ICE that can push this 3800 lb SUV at 20 MPH for 100 miles In fact I would think it would be hard to get much better than 60 MPG in a purpose built engine/drive train.

How I arrived at 360 watts was to take a fully charged battery pack which holds 1.8 KW and used 20% since this seems to be what most here are saying this gives you 360watts. Most here also think you can drive about 1 mile without to much trouble at 20MPH. If I am off then adjust accordingly. But even if I am 100% in error it still works out to be 50 MPG. This is still far greater than any ICE could do. How it does this is due to the electric using nearly all of the energy in motion and very little lost to heat and friction.


The ICE when recharging is under a lighter load than when it has to push the whole truck so it uses much less gas. Since the electric motor uses about 1/10 the energy, maybe even less, that the ICE does to do the same work the electric motor will ALWAYS have better FE EVEN when it's battery needs to be recharged by the ICE.

The Ice recharges VIA the 45 KW generator. The electric motor is rated at 70 KW MAX load/power. Usually it is using much less than this hence why 360 watts can get you down the road about 1 mile at 20 MPH.

The real gains come when you plug in and thus keep the ICE off all or almost all of your drive to work. Since electricity costs about 1/3 for the same amount of electricity generated by the ICE, you can really save some money buy plugging into the grid and also send that tail pipe far from the crowded city.