My sister's switches modes, and this is how I understand it: when the car is charged up, she's on electric power, but when the battery runs down, the car starts itself. When the battery is charged up again, it stalls the engine and she runs on electricity again.
The brakes are also unusual, and the friction feeds the battery along with the engine when it's running. Also, if you demand a lot of power after sitting at a light, the engine will come on immediately and give you power. I know it sounds iffy, but we chased a tornado in it and the power was there
right now. And we needed it several times.
That's about all I can tell you, since I don't own one or do research. Anyone else explain it better? Or did I goof up?