Re:Are there Open projects for adapting a street c (Score 1)

I saw a company in Australia that had an electric motor that mounted in the engine compartment. It was connected to the existing gas motor by a drive belt like an alternator and a battery pack was installed in the trunk. It was'nt so much for fuel efficiency as for a power boost off the line. During deceleration it acted as a generator (instead of the brake operated regenerative braking) and charged the battery. During steady driving it either freewheeled or kicked in so the engine didn't work so hard. mostly though it kicked in off the line to accelerate. Seemed like it could be reconfigured for greater efficiency or the gas motor could be sized down but they didn't talk of that. I've searched recently and not found them. I thought the excciting thing was to retrofit existing cars if there could be an efficiency boost.