ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,491,761, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to MERCEDES-BENZ GROUP AG (Stuttgart, Germany).
"Hybrid drive unit" was invented by Peter Hahn (Stuttgart, Germany) and Carsten Gitt (Stuttgart, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A hybrid drive unit includes a transmission having an input shaft and first and second countershafts. An internal combustion engine is directly couplable to the input shaft via a clutch. There are seven shiftable gear pairings, each including a gearwheel arranged coaxially to the input shaft. The first gear pairing has a first gearwheel formed as an idler gear and arranged coaxially to the input shaft, and a second gea...