Yeah Tony - GM rolled out their first really hot electric vehicle prototypes over 10 years ago. I worked on a dynomometer for Delco/Hughes about 9 years ago to conduct endurance testing of electric vehicle motors. They had a GEO Storm gutted and outfitted with a bunch of lead acid batteries - 360 VDC bus. Each front wheel had a 130HP (peak) 20,000 rpm electric motor through a planetary gear reducer - the motor has a flat torque curve from stall to 10000 RPM and constant HP from 12,000 - 20,000 rpm - the gear reducer was one speed. Motor ran forward and reverse and was used for braking as well - software limited the reverse speed and power. Still needed a radiator to keep the motors and inverter modules cool. It could smoke the front tires and ran the wheels off an Acura legend on a Pikes Peak climb - beat it by over a minute.
You can be certain they have engineered the crap outta this thing in 8 years and what they have now looks a lot different than back then. One huge advantage to the design they have now is that it shares the same drive train as the V8.
The electric motor can be used for braking which will reclaim all the energy of the moving vehicle + charge the entire time the V8 is running. When the batteries have a full charge, then the regular brakes do all the work. The big hurdle is in the batteries / fuel cell technology.
The whole thing will be computer monitored and controlled. I am sure they will have an infrared port so you can simply pull into a service bay equiped with an infrared tranceiver and PC with the right diagnostic software so that when something pukes, just get an electrical slob to change out the box indicated on the print out.
You need to get a jump on getting a union started for sparkies that can run a computer and change 42V rated electrical parts in cars. The time to corner the market is NOW! LOL
