Couldn't help but to jump in here. Before I bash internal combustion I should say that I'm addicted to it in all its forms. That being said, a gasoline engine such as that powering a car typically converts only 20 to 30 percent of the energy released in combustion into usable work at the flywheel. The rest is lost in a variety of ways, mostly through heat sent out in the exhaust and through the cooling system. Think about it, the expansion (compression ratio) allowed for capturing the energy is about 10 to 1, while the expansion to ambient pressure in converting from liquid starting material to gaseous products is 1000 to 1. We let a lot of high pressure hot gases out as waste. So, there are huge opportunities to recover some of this using hybrid designs or other means. In a hybrid, the idea is to use an undersized but efficient gas engine for power and run it in a narrow, efficient rpm range. All power comes from this engine, and it ultimately is sufficient because it can continue producing power during coasting, for eample, and that power is stored in a battery and released through an electric moter as needed.

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