One of the ways that hybrid cars improve economy over other vehicles is by regenerative braking. I.e when a hybrid slows down, it stores it's kinetic energy (energy it has because it is moving). In Toyota, General Motors & Honda hybrids, the energy is stored as electricity in batteries.
This New Scientist article is about the possibility of storing energy from regenerative braking in a flywheel. Proposed advantages are weight & cost:
One problem with electrical regenerative braking is that the amount of energy that can be recovered is limited by how fast the battery can accept charge. Hopefully, a flywheel based regenerative braking system would overcome this limitation.
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