Wrightspeed, a maker of fuel efficient, electric drive systems, has raised a $5 million Series A round from an unnamed private investor. According to the company&'s press release, co-founder and EVP of Infinera, David Welch, will also join the company&'s board.

The company&'s founder and CEO is Ian Wright, one of the co-founders of Tesla. Although Wright was an important figure in Tesla&'s early days, he left long before the IPO to found Wrightspeed. Wrightspeed doesn&'t want to be the next electric automaker, instead, the company wants to build the best hybrid electric drive systems for high-performance cars and medium to large-sized trucks.

In other words, the company has no use for the minivan market�a4���a4� at least not today�a4���a4� its equipment is designed for extreme race cars or hefty, long haul trucks, racking up hundreds of miles per day. The goal, according to Wright, is to sell &''technology [that] will displace at least 3,000 gallons of fuel per year per high usage vehicle.&''

The San Jose-based company&'s marquee product is the Wrightspeed Digital DriveSystem (DDS). The platform, according to the company&'s website, includes &''the battery system, electric motors and drive electronics, generator control system, vehicle dynamics control, user interface and the software control plane.&'' The DDS&'s electric motors can reach 250 hp and area4s�� built to be lightweight at roughly 40 pounds. In order to enhance flexibility, the system also uses motors modularly, so it can conform to what a vehicle needs.