Maybe. It could at least be another niche development. The question is, how much will these batteries cost, and how often will they need to be replaced? And will my local power company agree to charge substantially less at night?
It's still unlikely that the car could be used for more than short trips, so it would effectively be an extra for most people. How much would states charge for registering a third car for two car families? How much will insurance companies charge to insure a third car?
How can the Trial Lawyer's Association be prevented from bringing on the usual gigantic lawsuits the first time someone in one of these little cars dies in a head-on collision with a normal car?
No doubt all this can be worked out, but it wouldn't be economical unless everyone was willing to cooperate. And I wonder if even the environmentalists could persuade Democrats to cross their close friends the trial lawyers?
Like you said, there's much to work out. But we should welcome this new technology. It's funny how quickly so many people take easy pot-shots at it.
It takes baby steps to get where we'd like to be. I'm sitting here typing on a small Macbook with more computing power than acres of mainframes from 50 years ago.
I can see it now.
Hundreds of abandoned cars on the side of the road, especially during snowstorms, as cars run out of power.
Seriously. Car thiefs would have to steal a dozen cars to get someplace.
And then there's the guy who just has to have a cigarette, or something, and attempts to head to the local market with barely enough juice powering his vehicle.
Car companies are talking about gas/electric hybrids. Since most trips around town by folks are less than 35 miles a day, the gas would never be used. This would go a long way toward making the air in crowded cities much cleaner. However, if you go beyond the range of the batteries, the gas would kick in, and take you the rest of the way until you could plug in again. There would be no need for a third car, especially if companies can produce a hybrid mini-van.