The ideal car would be one with virtually unlimited mileage, all wheel drive, superior handling, instant torque, and outstanding fuel economy.
We can achieve this now via hybrids, and can deliver a car/truck/SUV which is powerful, economical, and fun to drive.
EVs are a dead end.
Back in the 1950’s engineers were touting nuclear powered cards that would run for decades. But imagine the mess a collision would make.
In all seriousness it seems like a Sterling cycle engine would work well in a hybrid. The Swedish make a diesel submarine running a (very) quiet Sterling engine to recharge the batteries. It’s extremely efficient.
Is there some reason we don’t see the Sterling set-up on cars and trucks?
“We can achieve this now via hybrids, and can deliver a car/truck/SUV which is powerful, economical, and fun to drive.”
We may be heading that way. We have a gas powered Lexus, that is 15 years old and a Honda Ridgeline, the first model.
We get cash offers for both vehicles on a regular basis.
My wife has a younger relative, who is a hybrid vehicle genius and has some type of contracts with both Honda and Toyota.
He sees gasoline in California and some blue states at or approaching $10/gal by this time next year. We are just under $5 in Northern Ca.
His recommendation is a Hybrid Honda and get a big rebate and sell our gas powered vehicles. The most we drive in a week is about 40 miles if we go to an out of town health clinic 15 miles away.
Keeping our car batteries charged on both vehicles is a challenge.
We have 120 volt plugs in both sides of our carport, and California PGE’s best rates are 9 pm to 1 pm the next day.
So, we could charge the vehicle at night or the next morning when we wake up at about 7 am, in our carport when it needs to be charged.
Last, but not least there is a huge cash rebate, and the car is probably good for 7 years plus, with our limited driving. No smogging inspections and free passes on a lot of freeway lanes.
I will be discussing the tax rebates with our CPA, when we have our annual pre tax meeting.