When he's not driving a Renault Formula 1 car or a locally-made Chrysler Sebring, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin test drives hybrid cars – or at least that's what he did on April 1 (no, really), when he got behind the wheel of the country’s first hybrid vehicle, the Yo-Mobile.
Built by Yo-Auto, a joint-venture between truck maker Yarovit Motors and Onexim Group, the company of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov who also owns the New Jersey Nets, the car has an unusual hybrid setup. It uses a rotary vane engine (see video below) that works on petrol and natural gas and is linked to a pair of electric motors.
