My initial thought on this is that if you want to get away from internal
combustion entirely or even mostly, than you might want to wait 3-5 years.
There are a number of technologies or approaches that are 'on the cusp', so
to speak, that should have either failed or made a breakthrough by then and
the practical options should be clearer.

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "M'obeechi" <obeechi@RUNBOX.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 5:50 PM
Subject: Hybrid Vanagon

I was looking up hybrid vehicles. Something in Wikipedia was saying better
to start with a car that has a manual transmission, that the AT wastes
energy. But they were talking about a conversion that removes the internal
combustion engine. I'm interested in maybe one day putting in electric
motors or what-ever-is-good to supplement the engine in my vanagon (which is
Subaru at this point). Thing is, I have an Automatic and want don't want to
consider a manual.

Can someone point me in the right direction. Has this been discussed or done
with a vanagon yet. I'm not really thinking propane, I'm in Southern
California, plus my engine is being switched over to a turbo, and since
propane needs high compression, I don't think that would make sense.

The paper today said that jet fuel cost has increased 80% this year. I won't
be surprised if gasoline reaches 25 dollars a gallon within the decade.