[rogue yam]

Dude!

The configuration you describe sounds very inefficient and is therefore whack.

However the new hybrid cars are really an application of this same set-up, all housed within the engine compartment of the car, of course. With the different components sized and integrated correctly, and taking advantage of other efficiencies (e.g. capturing momentum during braking) these cars can be much more fuel efficient that standard gasoline-only cars.

It's all new technology and therefore it is not price-competitive yet. And I do not necessarily support any subsidies of these technologies. But that is not to say that hybrid cars won't one day be competitive on price and other performance with standard gasoline cars.

[F.J. Mitchell]

If they would install huge wheels on the back and tiny wheels on the front, so the car is always running down hill, all else it would need is a really good set of brakes.

[Down South P.E.]

I wrote my masters thesis on this 10 years ago. I said then California would have to back up on their "zero emission" standards and their mandated sales of these type vehicles. And they did.

The public isn't going to buy something that doesn't give them the same performance or better than the car they drive now. Who wants to drive 50 miles and have to recharge the batteries for 4 hours. And five years or less down the road from purchasing it spend thousand to replace a batter pack - bad for the pocket book and environment. Electric vehicle technology ain't going to make it before hybrids and fuel cells - if ever - solar will many many years from now - if the Lord tarries.

I also said in my thesis hybrids would be on the market within 10 to 15 years (that was 10 years ago) and that fuel cells would be longer term 25+ years (from 10 years ago). Hybrids will be on the mass market first. The technology is there - it's conventional. They get substantially better miles per gallon gasoline equivalent and substantially reduce emissions. If natural gas is used instead of gasoline the efficienty (and therefore miles per gallon) is increased and emissions are even further reduced.

That said the big thing then is performance compared to what we drive now. I haven't driven one. You take care of that and mass production will take care of cost.