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[Marks DTM Calib]

Electric battery based cars are a joke, never going to catch on or be able to be used for anything other then short commutes.

All they lack is large ears, a trunk and  white paint.

I bet people said the same things about those ridiculous horseless carriage contraptions about 100 years ago..

A fundamental issue here though......you cant simply spend five minutes pouring energy back into your battery to get youa  further 400 miles.....hence laim duck, joke concept etc.

Now a Hydrogen fuel cell, thats a whole different kettle of fish (when they start producing the Hydrogen from water and not Natural gas like they do today!)

you need to re-charge it whole night for some short distance driving (long distance obviously out of question).. if they can develop better stronger and cheaper batteries, that may change the picture but for now,  we have to wait..

Still not convenient, what happens when that trip to the south of France is needed or the day trip on business.....or when you need to tow the pikey wagon.

What ever it is it will need to be a high energy thing and hence chemical energy!

[cem_devecioglu]

Electric battery based cars are a joke, never going to catch on or be able to be used for anything other then short commutes.

All they lack is large ears, a trunk and  white paint.

I bet people said the same things about those ridiculous horseless carriage contraptions about 100 years ago..

A fundamental issue here though......you cant simply spend five minutes pouring energy back into your battery to get youa  further 400 miles.....hence laim duck, joke concept etc.

Now a Hydrogen fuel cell, thats a whole different kettle of fish (when they start producing the Hydrogen from water and not Natural gas like they do today!)

you need to re-charge it whole night for some short distance driving (long distance obviously out of question).. if they can develop better stronger and cheaper batteries, that may change the picture but for now,  we have to wait..

Still not convenient, what happens when that trip to the south of France is needed or the day trip on business.....or when you need to tow the pikey wagon.

What ever it is it will need to be a high energy thing and hence chemical energy!

I think we are lucky and must enjoy our v6 engines while we can find fossil fuels in a station at the corner
 
not sure the generations can find this fuels after a hundred years ago   and probably stuck to electric only

[Rods2]

The University of Illinois has been researching how to charge batteries faster and have patented a new battery construction, where they can fully charge a mobile phone in seconds and expect to 90% charge an electric car battery in about 2 minutes,  but obviously not from a 13A plug. There will be a 20-30% cost premium, but they are calling it game changing technology. 

They are also looking to see if the same techniques can be applied to solar panels to much increase their efficiency.

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/revolt/a-new-fast-charge-battery-could-jumpstart-the-electric-vehicle-market/

[cem_devecioglu]

The University of Illinois has been researching how to charge batteries faster and have patented a new battery construction, where they can fully charge a mobile phone in seconds and expect to 90% charge an electric car battery in about 2 minutes,  but obviously not from a 13A plug. There will be a 20-30% cost premium, but they are calling it game changing technology. 

They are also looking to see if the same techniques can be applied to solar panels to much increase their efficiency.

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/revolt/a-new-fast-charge-battery-could-jumpstart-the-electric-vehicle-market/

 
 
"There is nothing permanent except change" 
                                                             Heraclitus
 

[Ken T]

I had always wondered why they don't develop a standard battery pack, and fit say 4 in a boot, each with say 15miles range, and easily removable, some sort of trolley to shift it. The petrol station's start stocking recharged battery packs instead of petrol, so you pull in and change 1, 2 or 3 packs. Simple 

ken

[ninjapirate]

I may of missed something (hello vodka) but from what i can see, it does 25-50 miles just on the battery, then the 1.4 ecotec cuts in to run a generator at a constant rpm for 300odd miles on petrol, so surely you can refill with petrol and just keep the genny running until you get to the destination when you can recharge to just use the batteries again. the price of these cars are still very high though, i think it will be a long time before i can justify one!

*the 1.4 never runs the wheels, only runs a genny to maintain power

[fattyfattyboomalatty]

electric cars are NOT the answer unfortunately. if we all swapped to plug in electric, we would need a further 10'000 power stations in the uk to cope with the demand. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are the answer but storage is proving to be a problem. the Hybrid is a short term solution but the market place is very misleading. The technology of a Hybrid is not new and Toyota have been producing them for 10 years and because of it at the moment toyota still lead (yay) with lexus following. ford do have a full hybrid but is 10 year old toyota technology. (Toyota sold it to them 2 years ago) honda have a mild hybrid and the new peugeot is too. the ampera is a range extender and the leaf and mitsi full electric are a joke.

[Marks DTM Calib]

I think electric cars might be, but I feel that you need the likes of hydrogen to make them work. Run out or get low and you simply refill .....

As a pointer, I predict that laptops and probably mobiles will have fuel cells powering them in the next 1-2 years......

[ninjapirate]

the chevy volt is a bit fun on forza 4 
the ampera isnt ment to be a hybrid, hybrids swap to a conventional engine, the ampera is always run by electric motors.