Electric - one for Stiggy!
Discussion
Well I have considered hybrid, easiest way is to run the engine of a hatchback in standard guise and drive the rear wheels with an electric motor via a diff, this does mean the motor is being rotated by the wheels even when its not powered up though unless a clutch is added. Not impressed with Prius types, they can only travel 1 mile at below 25 mph on batteries only and the sealed packs are a massive 201 volts. DC high volts can cause serious burns and death, it causes your hand to grab tighter if you touch the wrong bit!!! I would not encourage playing with those. You could completely put your self off the idea though by asking Toyota for the price of a replacement pack of Nickel Metal Hydride.
I am testing a Lithium Yttrium Phosphate, seems to be temp stable and predictable, they came in at 3k for a 7.2 kwh hour pack, that is 100ah @72v I am now developing a balancing charger system.
Interestingly the Prius has a 1.3kwh capacity that is limited to 50% for battery protection. That is 6.5 ah @201v. Not a lot of use but it does get you a con charge free drive into London.
I am testing a Lithium Yttrium Phosphate, seems to be temp stable and predictable, they came in at 3k for a 7.2 kwh hour pack, that is 100ah @72v I am now developing a balancing charger system.
Interestingly the Prius has a 1.3kwh capacity that is limited to 50% for battery protection. That is 6.5 ah @201v. Not a lot of use but it does get you a con charge free drive into London.
"con charge free" - so many connotations you can make with that, the Prius is a con? The congestion charge is a con? You can get a free charge for your con? I could offer more! 
Funnily enough, I noticed 6 months or so ago you could buy a tidy fully functioning Prius for less than £2k & looked at the possibility of using the battery pack or motor for an electrical vehicle application. You obviously wouldn't want to use it as it is used in the Prius as it is pointless & saves virtually no fuel in real world situations at all (unless you can charge it overnight, preferably from renewable sources - ha, ha! & have a 2 mile each way commute at very low speed with somewhere to charge it up whilst at work!). My main theory was that you can't buy an electric motor of the power in the Pious for £2k never mind a saleable battery pack with a car attached! However, when I started looking at the wiring diagrams (a lot of which seem to be schematic only & lacking any detail) I realised that it was probably going to be imposible to use the motor without substantial amounts of the rest of the control system present (be very happy if someone can disprove this & spell out how you would use the electric motor on its own).
There are 3 battery packs one at 202v & two at 108v each, the battery charger is also built into all this wiring, it looks like a total nightmare & as Stiggy say do you really want to be playing with 202v? You could finish up very dead!
My take on the electric car is that things like the Nissan Leaf are virtually useless outside specific situations & the day when you really need that extra 10 miles range you haven't got then the car becomes almost as much use as our public transport system (will get you almost anywhere really quickly apart from the bit at the start & the bit at the end of your journey) so as good as a chocolate fireguard. However if you had an onboard charging system, which need not be large, heavy, fuel hungry or expensive (when compared to something that's £30k when new, & can be realistically compared with vehicles available at around £8k that don't have the range restriction) but can be engaged several hours BEFORE charge state is likely to become critical to boost range or can be used whilst vehicle is stationary waiting to be used, this would make the vehicle far more user friendly & stop all the range anxiety that comes with a purely electric vehicle, it could also make the vehicle substantially cheaper as you could get rid of some of the battery storage capacity.
Lithium Ion motorcycle batteries up to around 20 Ah are now readily available (I know, I stock them!) at sensible money, those Lithium Ytrium batteries sound really good & offer more power per £ than anything else I've heard of other than good old lead acid, which is invariably ruled out due to weight issues, how long before they become mainstream & will they ever be able to be charged by anything other than a specialist charger? (the Li Ion ones will charge from an ordinary alternator or normal 12v battery charger)
Funnily enough, I noticed 6 months or so ago you could buy a tidy fully functioning Prius for less than £2k & looked at the possibility of using the battery pack or motor for an electrical vehicle application. You obviously wouldn't want to use it as it is used in the Prius as it is pointless & saves virtually no fuel in real world situations at all (unless you can charge it overnight, preferably from renewable sources - ha, ha! & have a 2 mile each way commute at very low speed with somewhere to charge it up whilst at work!). My main theory was that you can't buy an electric motor of the power in the Pious for £2k never mind a saleable battery pack with a car attached! However, when I started looking at the wiring diagrams (a lot of which seem to be schematic only & lacking any detail) I realised that it was probably going to be imposible to use the motor without substantial amounts of the rest of the control system present (be very happy if someone can disprove this & spell out how you would use the electric motor on its own).
There are 3 battery packs one at 202v & two at 108v each, the battery charger is also built into all this wiring, it looks like a total nightmare & as Stiggy say do you really want to be playing with 202v? You could finish up very dead!
My take on the electric car is that things like the Nissan Leaf are virtually useless outside specific situations & the day when you really need that extra 10 miles range you haven't got then the car becomes almost as much use as our public transport system (will get you almost anywhere really quickly apart from the bit at the start & the bit at the end of your journey
) so as good as a chocolate fireguard. However if you had an onboard charging system, which need not be large, heavy, fuel hungry or expensive (when compared to something that's £30k when new, & can be realistically compared with vehicles available at around £8k that don't have the range restriction) but can be engaged several hours BEFORE charge state is likely to become critical to boost range or can be used whilst vehicle is stationary waiting to be used, this would make the vehicle far more user friendly & stop all the range anxiety that comes with a purely electric vehicle, it could also make the vehicle substantially cheaper as you could get rid of some of the battery storage capacity.Lithium Ion motorcycle batteries up to around 20 Ah are now readily available (I know, I stock them!) at sensible money, those Lithium Ytrium batteries sound really good & offer more power per £ than anything else I've heard of other than good old lead acid, which is invariably ruled out due to weight issues, how long before they become mainstream & will they ever be able to be charged by anything other than a specialist charger? (the Li Ion ones will charge from an ordinary alternator or normal 12v battery charger)
This is the XR3 Hybrid. A plans build three wheeled hybrid from the USA. Claims
125 mpg on diesel power alone, 225 mpg equivalent when diesel and electric power are used in series.
For more ...
http://www.rqriley.com/xr3.htm
Is this what you had in mind.
This is the Antro Solo, a very different 3 seat hybrid. This uses human power, solar and plug in power. It comes for Hungry and for more visit http://www.solo-duo.hu There is also a very good section on parts for vehicles likes this.
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