Alex Severinsky emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1978 and on October 30, 2008, he will be inducted into the Innovation Hall of Fame at the University of Maryland for his Hyperdrive power-amplified internal combustion engine power train. So what exactly is the Hyperdrive device that Severinsky designed? To put it in basic terms, it was the very first electric internal combustion engine design.

“Engineers at U.S. and Japanese automakers were interested in Severinsky’s invention, but top management resisted. A staff engineer at Toyota later developed the same idea as Severinsky for hybrids. When the Toyota Prius was introduced, Severinsky fought to protect his patent rights. After a protracted legal battle with Toyota, he won the civil case in 2005. (Additional litigation is in progress.)” (Source: PR Newswire)

Severinsky’s interest in automobile technology continues to this day; in 2005, he started a new company – Fuelcor. The purpose of Fuelcor is to “make fuel instead of hunting for it by synthetically manufacturing hydrocarbon compounds from their ultimate products of decomposition – carbon dioxide and water.” (Source: University of Maryland website).

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