on a related note, if you have a high torque low rpm electric motor,
you could always hook the motor to the transaxle and figure out some
sort of transverse turbocharged 3-cyl engine layout to provide the
electricity.
my $.02 worth.

On 11/18/05, Wil Haslup <wil@charmfx.com> wrote:
> Recently I saw a segment of MotorWeek highlighting a small company
> building 'serial' hybrid conversions.  Serial hybrids are different from
> the parallel hybrids being built by the big manufacturers in that the
> fueled engine doesn't power the wheels and only charges the batteries
> that run the electric drives.
>
> They typically have 2 or 4 electric drive motors directly driving 2 or 4
> of the wheels.
>
> The fueled engine can run in it's best RPM range at all times and can be
> of any variety...gas, diesel, piston, turbine, sterling, anything that
> can create electricity.
>
> It seems to me a serial retrofit of a Vanagon would be simpler and the
> thing could run anywhere any fueled vehicle could without depending on
> access to electricity.
>
> (...it seems you'd have to swap the fueled motor for one that is paired
> with a more powerful charging system, get your batteries, and four drive
> motors and adapt whatever wheel hardware to put them in.  The rest is
> pretty straight forward.)
>
>
>
> --
>
> Wil
>
>
> -- http://www.charmfx.com/
>
> "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who
> are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
> -- Mark Twain
>