02-13-2006, 07:12 PM
I don't think it's bogus, but the MPG #'s seem too optimistic to me. Without much detail in the article, I don't know how they are charging and discharging the hydraulic cylinders. In an electric/gas hybrid, an electric motor both charges and discharges the battery. How would you convert mechanical braking force into a pushing action on the cyl? How would the cyl discharge? If it was through one motor attached to the drivetrain, and another to push in the cyl, there would be two extra times that the energy was converted, each with its own eff/heat loss. Even if the cyl itself was more efficient than a battery, that would certianly be lost in the transfer. If there's some sort of completely mechanical, magical transmission they came up with instead of converting to electrical and back, THAT would be interesting. Either that, or they put a little 4cyl in there and drove it around at a constant 30MPH and called that "city" driving.