Lotus Reveals 1.2L Three-Cylinder Range Extender Engine

"Diesel still better than hybrid and will probably always be". Correction: Diesel still better than petrol-hybrid...a diesel-hybrid would probably be even better ;) Also, on another point, if I'm not mistaken isn't this engine similar in principle to the Chevy Volt and Merc BlueZero E-Cell Plus concept?

Not at all, the difference is this engine doesn't touch the car's powertrain directly it spins a generator that powers the motors directly or charges the battery. The advantage of this is that the engine doesnt need a gearbox at all, and stays at its most efficient RPM all the time. The volt is a hybrid with a big battery, that is it, when the battery dries up the engine powers the drive train and therefore needs a transmission.

radmeister I'm sorry but you are incorrect. The Volt is a Series Hybird NOT a Parallel....

Yeah ur right, my mistake. Some interesting facts i read up on the volt. The battery needs a minimum temperature of between 0?C to 10?C (32?F to 50?F) to be used and when the Volt is plugged in the battery will be kept warm enough so that it can be used immediately when the Volt is unplugged.[74] If the Volt is kept unplugged and the temperature of the battery is below the minimum temperature the gasoline engine will run until the battery warms up.[74] This temperature regulation is done since electro-chemical batteries have degraded performance when they are very cold.[74] The energy capacity of the Volt's 375 lb (170 kg) 220-cell lithium-ion battery pack is anticipated to be 16 kWh,[2], but restricted to use only 8.8 kWh of this capacity to maximize the life of the pack. It will only be allowed to charge to 85% of full capacity and to discharge only to approximately 30% SoC before the engine cuts in and maintains the charge near the lower level. When the vehicle is plugged into a charger the battery SoC is restored to 85%. So you aren't using the full battery, and it seems like in our cold canadian winters that have temperatures below 0-10deg for more than 6 months a year the volt only averages 50mpg..Pathetic