>
> No. First battery powered cars are a lot more efficient
> than gasoline powered; at least I don't know any gasoline
> powered car that comes close to the 200 mpg that a solaria
> selectric obtained.
Daihatsu made a streamlined, 660cc/hybrid (no external power plant input) concept car that allegedly tops 160 MPG.
http://www.daihatsu.com/motorshow/tokyo05/ufe3/index.html
They also have this incredible little hybrid roadster (it gets a mere 80 MPG, but it goes fast!) I covet this thing far more than, say, a boring old Viper or Carrera, but even if it were in production, which it's not, I still probably couldn't buy one in the U.S.A.
http://www.daihatsu.com/motorshow/tokyo05/hvs/index.html
And if you want cleanness and thermal efficiency, how about a hydrogen/air electric fuel cell:
http://www.daihatsu.com/motorshow/tokyo05/tanto_f/index.html
Anyway, I have nothing against ultra-efficient cars which run off central power plants per se, but if you could talk a fraction the people who are inclined to buy an SUV to drive through cities and suburbs into buying a merely super-efficient ("super" < "ultra") 660cc hybrid, or even that 1500cc speed-demon gas-hog, you could see these things on the road next year. Whereas with pure battery cars like you're talking about, before you could get off the ground you'd need to build a regional network of charging stations comparable to our network of gas stations. Mass fueling of electric cars isn't even tested technology; surely it would take years to work out the bugs and safety hazards. And probably in the process you'd also have to rebuild half of the nation's electric grid.
Yours WDK - WKiernan at ij.net