“Hybrids sound interesting. Does the battery needs to be charges at home from wall outlet or is it strictly regenerative charging?”
neither ... very few hybrids have a plugin option ...
all hybrids include an ICE engine that generates electricity for the high voltage battery to keep it charged ...
additionally, regenerative braking and regenerative coasting automatically convert the front axle drive motor into a generator, converting the braking/coasting kinetic energy in to electricity that’s stored in the high voltage battery ...
thus the ICE engine constantly and automatically turns on and off only as needed, and the axle drive motor/generator automatically constantly switches back and forth between motor-mode and generator-mode as depending upon the circumstance ...
gas mileage savings results from not running the ICE engine unnecessarily, e.g., idling, and from regenerative braking ...
hybrids tend to have same high-torque acceleration found in EVs so are a blast to drive, but have none of the drawbacks of EVs ...
Honda takes their hybrid systems one step further and automatically mechanically connects the ICE engine to the driveshaft when speeds are greater than 42 mph, instead of generating electricity, resulting in being even more efficiency ...
Sounds like a complicated system with all the switching of power source. Is that done via mechanical clutches or hydraulic transmission?