Stations to recharge the batteries on electric or hybrid cars are generally considered impractical because it takes too long to charge a battery (relative to how far you can go on the charge).
Be that as it may, as long as you're at the station anyway filling up the tank, why not get a little electricity at the same time? A hybrid fuel station would have liquid fuel-- gas, or perhaps hydrogen-- and also plugs to charge your battery directly.
First plug in, then fill your tank, then disconnect. That five minutes of charge wouldn't be enough on its own to get you around, but it would be worth something. You could also leave your car charging while you went inside to buy a snack or use the restroom. If you went to the restaurant next door for dinner, you could even get yourself a full charge (& presumably save a little money)-- but you would never have to wait around if you didn't want to.
<3-- mungojelly, Jan 07 2006 sparkBOOM!-- normzone, Jan 07 2006 Nice idea but... what Norm said.-- wagster, Jan 07 2006 I'm thinking that the cost of this equipment would overshadow any benefit gained by trying to sell someone five minutes of electricity.
Plus, consider this advanced math: H2 + O2 + electric spark = (pain + fire + lawsuit).
[edit] - And H2O. Don't forget H2O.-- Headcleaner, Jan 08 2006 I could see this working in Alaska, they have outlets everywhere to plugin block heaters.-- n2toh, Jan 08 2006 I agree, this sounds far to dangerous. I could elaborate but I think sparkBOOM! says it far more succinctly...-- Minimal, Jan 09 2006 What'd the funny little one-legged two-toed dinosaur footprint doing at the bottom? Does the dinosaur charge your car for you, or what?
The idea seems reasonable. I have a feeling that this would still necessitate charging at home, because the amount of electricity gained would not compare to the amount of petrol, but every little helps, I suppose.
As for sparkBOOM!, I don't think that would be too much of a risk, because it should be fairly easy to install a safety feature that only connects power when the plug is safely in. Surely if the act of combining electricity and petrol produced sparkBOOM, then hybrid cars themselves would not catch on very quickly.-- dbmag9, Jan 09 2006 random, halfbakery