Electric motor assist is always good for the simplicity of it, and for the huge torque available at low RPM. It is essentially the poor man's supercharger, and will be used to great effect in creating some really amazing road rockets in times to come.
For the short term, success for hybrids will come to those designs that are affordable but don't radically change the behavior of the driver in the negative. 200mpg might be acceptable, but if you can't go on a freeway due to poor acceleration or limited top speed then you have a fail.
Similarly the appearance of the vehicle, (a topic discussed many times before) where designers are hell bent on making a hybrid look radically different from a normal car. If you expect people to accept a new technology under the hood and they have reservations (because of the often higher price tag), then you don't make it pink and put shark fins on it and say this is what you will drive. You give them a normal looking sedan or family car and ease them into it.
For the ideas and designs above, I like the hybrid air. I'm just curious how they absorb and recover the heat generated from compressing the air. Or possibly they may not. But this is an example to me of a normal looking car using sustainable technology (non rare earth, simple steel construction) to provide hybrid functionality. And its safer then LiPo, acid or hydrogen. Only deficiency being the density of energy possible before the pressure requirements are too high to do it safely.

As one can clearly see from the brand signs on the hubcaps, the Peugeot Hybrid Air is not a Peugeot but a Citroen. Although Peugeot aquired Citroen in the mid 1970's, both brands are run quite separately. The conpany which stands for both brands is known as PSA. Just recently PSA started a cooperation with GM and has announced three different car projects which will be built in Europe. As far as I know PSA also seeks cooperation with GM on the field of electric mobility.

While the torque availability is nice in electric motors the need for rare earth elements and cost is strongly negative. Pneumatic or flywheel energy storage can store energy faster at lower cost and 2 counter rotating flywheels can provide gyroscopic stabilization that make 2 or even 1 wheel cars workable.

I think the Elio is not only cool and green but affordable, even if they sell for about $9,000.00. I hope they succede in getting it made. One can reserve one. http://www.eliomotors.com

The world does not need hybrids that still use fossil fuels, but new clean energy consuming vehicles.

The Messerscmidt (sp). From back in the 60's had three wheels. A teacher at my high school drove one and sometimes the kids would pick it up and hide it behind the bushes. I assume it was made by the same company that made the ME109, bane to the B17's and the RAF. Maybe they had the clout to have it be street legal here. We know they never really lost their power or influence.

I agree with Nairda and Slowburn. The hybrid air concept is better in that it eliminates the need for rare earths used in the motors and needs no batteries, which have a number of environmental issues that are added to the problem of fossil fuel use. Hope it's successful in the marketplace and other makers see the advantage and jump on the bandwagon.

In the Nissan BladeGlider's article, "the design became the subject of a lawsuit filed by Nissan's DeltaWing partner Delta Wing Project 56", statement... is ridiculous. When I was a kid, 40+ years ago, we all built "cars" out of what ever we could savage from worn-out lawn mowers, left over wood and parts from bikes. We experimented with both overly wide front axles for quick turning, or wide rear ends to increase stability. Neither of these "delta" shapes, either coming or going is new. I would love to see pictures or old sketches, from guys or gals between the ages of 30 to 90, sitting in their home brewed, human powered carts. Not everybody had the money to build a Soap Box Derby cart and the imagination of the children we were, was unlimited. There are some sites that show just this type of carts I am describing. Go to your favorite search engine and type in "down hill carts" and you will see what I am talking about.

@ Frik Linde Please define clean. Diesel engines can be configured to be clean enough to use in shaft mines without poisoning the miners.

Looks like the 3 wheeled nutcases will never accept that using 3 wheels is so dangerous that it's nutty.
Bob Lutz is behind the VIA vehicles so you know that this is the Real Deal.
These are Great Trucks. And better looking than the off the shelf GM stuff.
Bill