According to the hype, the batteries provide enough juice for about 40 miles, when the range-extending gasoline engine starts up, providing an additional 400 miles -- averaging, per the pretty girl on the stand, about 100 MPG before it needs to be plugged in again. But when der Gubernator erselbst -- World Congress keynoter Ahnold Schwarzeneggar -- came up to praise the Raser-Hummer, we decided that, to make sure that we didn't look humb ourselves, we should do the math:

When you plug the little brick into the garage at night to charge the batteries, it wakes up with enough battery-stored energy for its 200 kW wheel-driving motor to propel it for 40 miles. After that, the turbocharged Ecotec four-cylinder gasoline engine, coupled to a 100 kW generator charges the batteries and powers the e-motor. At that point, you get an asymptotic decline in average fuel economy, and at the 60-mile mark, you have indeed averaged the dramatic 100 MPG fuel economy the company claims, but mileage goes down from there. The actual, long-range economy is a less headline-grabbing 33 MPG. Much better than a standard H3 for sure, but Raser has not quite yet managed to defy the laws of physics, or for that matter, to get their basic algebra correct.