it is also understood that the motors 8 a 8 b could be connected directly to the driven wheels 11 without the use of individual gear boxes 9 a 9 b or transmission 9 the motors 8 could be of many different types with separately excited dc motors and or permanent magnet dc motors being chosen for use in the exemplary embodiments described herein the battery pack 6 employs fast charging batteries for example pure lead or advanced lead acid batteries which allow the batteries to go from a full discharge to a full charge in less than about two hours lithium ion or other advanced batteries that allow fast recharge could also be used and are considered within the scope of the present invention as shown in fig4 and 5 the vehicle may also include a starting battery 60 that starts the internal combustion engine although the starting function could also be provided by the main battery pack 6 the generator 4 which may be a fixed or variable speed generator provides sufficient power to charge the battery pack 6 from a fully discharged state to a fully charged state in less than about two hours with the vehicle stopped and not using power an optional onboard charger can be used that would charge.