Re: Why bother with the battery?

Because the motors don't draw the full 290kW all the time.

In this mode you're using the battery as a booster to provide extra power in short bursts --- i.e., when you put your foot down. When you lift your foot again, the load drops and the battery recharges. This means that you can use a much smaller engine than you'd normally need, as you only need to generate average power, not peak power. Plus you get efficiency benefits, as since the engine's not connected directly to the wheels you're not crippling it by forcing it to run at a range of revs: the engine gets to run at the speed it wants to run at, regardless of how fast the car's moving.

The point of all this is that you end up with a car that behaves like an electric car, with the simplified transmission and awesome torque that you get with such things, but with the range of a fuel-based car. It's something I've been waiting for for ages.