http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/3/emw510312.htm

"100MPG Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technology a Reality Now

D&H Global Enterprise, LLC., announces revolutionary technology in a new electric power propulsion system for Hybrid Electric and Electric vehicle capability.

Menomonee Falls, WI (PRWeb) March 9, 2007 -- D&H Global Enterprise, LLC., announces a new electric power propulsion system that delivers higher performing and more reliable Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) with reduced complexity, resulting in lower manufacturing and ownership costs.

The current HEV power propulsion systems on the market utilize many complex and costly electronic circuits for monitoring sensors and control platforms, and are efficient only at relatively low speeds. There is a need for HEV performance equivalent to regular gasoline vehicles, but with better mileage. In response, D&H Global Enterprise presents three patent-pending products, the PMRM™, the PMVCU, and the Power Electronic Unit.
. . ."

This press release recently started circulating and my first attempts stumbled across a web site with a lot of annoying pop-ups and 'come-on' ads. This morning, I went back and hunted down the source:

http://dhglobalentllc.com/projects

"D&H" claims exceptionally efficient motor/generators, driver and control electronics, "98%" for the motor. But hybrid vehicle efficiency is much more than just motor and electronics efficiency and it is misleading to claim these parts would give a hybrid 100 MPG performance.

The major drivers for hybrid efficiency are:

• rolling resistance
• aerodynamic drag
• ICE efficiency

This list and the energy content per gallon of fuel is all it takes to plot MPG versus MPG. Although efficient power electronics and optimized control laws are important, there is more than the power electronics keeping us from 100 MPG hybrids.

Bob Wilson

 

Right. Overall vehicle efficiency is about how much of the energy in your gas tank goes toward moving the vehicle down the road, and how far down the road that extracted energy will take you. A hybrid system allows for greater overall efficiency primarily by allowing for improved ICE efficiency (through lower displacement, atkinsonized breathing, and more optimal engine loading to name a few things) and by recovering kinectic energy that would otherwise be wasted. I'm sure they can improve the efficiency and capability of the system through better batteries and perhaps better management. And I'm even more sure that they could reduce cost, which I think is even more important. (These vehicles need to make up a larger proportion of the vehicles in the road in order for them to help our energy situation.) But I'm skeptical that we can get all the way to 100mpg on the hybrid drive system alone.

I only know of one vehicle that is truly capable of 100mpg, and that is only under ideal conditions: the Honda Insight w/ manual transmission. In this case, it's efficiency has absolutely nothing to do with the hybrid system. It's all about the small, highly efficient lean-burn engine which, at low load, can efficiently pull a very lightweight, "slippery" vehicle down the road.