Patent ID: 8307930

Claim:
A hybrid electric vehicle comprising: a combustion engine for propelling the hybrid electric vehicle via at least one driven wheel coupled to the combustion engine through a drive train; a high-voltage energy storage bank comprising at least one electric charge storage device selected from the group consisting of lithium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, and/or supercapacitors; an electric motor/generator associated with the drive train for recovering kinetic energy from the hybrid electric vehicle to re-charge the at least one electric charge storage device selected from the group consisting of lithium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, and/or supercapacitors of the high-voltage energy storage bank when operating as a generator, and when operating as a motor, for drawing electric current from the at least one electric charge storage device selected from the group consisting of lithium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, and/or supercapacitors of the high-voltage energy storage bank to propel the hybrid electric vehicle through the drive train by adding additional torque to torque being produced by the combustion engine; a low-voltage battery bank comprising multiple low-voltage lead-acid storage batteries which are electrically connected in parallel circuit relationship with each other; a uni-directional DC-to-DC converter for re-charging the at least one electric charge storage device selected from the group consisting of lithium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, and/or supercapacitors of the high-voltage energy storage bank from the multiple low-voltage lead-acid storage batteries of the low-voltage battery bank; and an AC-to-DC converter for re-charging the multiple low-voltage lead-acid storage batteries of the low-voltage battery bank from a source of AC electricity, the AC-to-DC converter comprising a circuit for converting utility-format AC electricity to an appropriate DC voltage for re-charging the multiple low-voltage lead-acid storage batteries of the low-voltage battery bank.