I was looking up hybrid vehicles. Something in Wikipedia was saying better to start with a car that has a manual transmission, that the AT wastes energy. But they were talking about a conversion that removes the internal combustion engine. I'm interested in maybe one day putting in electric motors or what-ever-is-good to supplement the engine in my vanagon (which is Subaru at this point). Thing is, I have an Automatic and want don't want to consider a manual. 

Can someone point me in the right direction. Has this been discussed or done with a vanagon yet. I'm not really thinking propane, I'm in Southern California, plus my engine is being switched over to a turbo, and since propane needs high compression, I don't think that would make sense. 

The paper today said that jet fuel cost has increased 80% this year. I won't be surprised if gasoline reaches 25 dollars a gallon within the decade.