anybody buying this ....hype?
panasonic, apparently.
Well more power (no pun intended) to him if he can pull it off with no government subsidies.
Yes. But for the battery packs, electric cars with their dramatically fewer moving parts are cheaper to make and maintain the internal combustion. Make batteries cheaper, electric cars rule.
Central generation of electricity distributed by grid to vehicle charging points or home/office heating systems is hugely more efficient than distribution of gasoline or diesel to gas stations or heating oil or natural gas to home/office furnaces — with batteries increasing the resilience and decreasing load volatility of charging points and home systems.
Robust batteries dramatically increase the extent to which rooftop and parking lot solar arrays can enable grid independence and increase the effective return upon rooftop solar investments.
I certainly don’t buy the idea that “fossil” fuels like petroleum are not “sustainable” sources of energy. IMO nothing even comes close to it at this time.