Makes sense to me. Combine these shocks with regenerative brakes, solar cells on the exposed surfaces of the vehicle, fuel cells and what have you and we might have something that could compete with a gas fueled car. We'll see. It is getting interesting out there, though.
Capital cost, weight, and reliability/maintenance are always the tradeoff for regenerative systems or any fuel-saving technologies. My own instinct is that a regenerative shock absorber cries out for some hard numbers on how much energy actually is dissipated in a shock absorber in normal smooth pavement operation. In terms of, say, the power consumption of the typical vehicle's electrical system. Perhaps it would be more practical in a truck than in a light car - and perhaps the actual motive is to give a sports car a tunable suspension with superior handling characteristics.
Right you are, CIS. This used to be called “Engineering Economics” not many years ago. I’m not sure basic engineering economics is even taught any more.
The big problem with regenerative systems is you have to store the energy recovered from the system and energy storage systems are usually expensive and heavy. Energy is typically stored in batteries or compressed air, both of which add significant weight to the vehicle. Then it takes more energy to get the heavier vehicle moving again (remember F=MA?), so a lot of the energy you recovered is wasted accelerating the heavier vehicle. Add the much higher capital and maintenance costs to this and you very often find the systems don’t make much sense — at least until gasoline is perhaps north of $10 per gallon.