[dangerdoc]

I'll settle for something that uses liquid fuel and gets >50% of the energy to the wheels. That will more than likely involve some sort of electric drive coupled with electrical storage. If they make the storage big enough, I can tool around town on electricity and save the liquid fuel for highway driving.

It's not about what I want though. Something along the line of a next generation ultracapacitor or battery will change how vehicles operate. They will will not rival the internal combustion engine, they will change the market.

At the turn of the century, steam powered ships plowed the waters, then they were replaced by internal piston driven engines and then came back as steam turbines then were replaced again with direct fuel turbines. There are old steam engines that make levels of torque that we really can't match with new technology but the new technology provided benefits that make giving up the old technology worthwile.

If you think that we are at the pinnacle of transportation technology, I'm not the one to tell you that you are wrong but history tends to argue against you.

[RFEngineer]

"If you think that we are at the pinnacle of transportation technology, I'm not the one to tell you that you are wrong but history tends to argue against you."

Transportation? no. Fuels? petroleum provides about the optimal mix of volatility and energy density, so I'd say we've gotten pretty much as close to the pinnacle as chemistry can provide......but you never know.