[Coeur de Lion]

Battery driven cars are indeed ridiculous. Another part of the transportation equation is not just the efficiency of stationary power plants and the efficiency of the conversion of electric power to mechanical. The dead weight of the vehicle has to also be taken into consideration. Vehicles which exhaust their fuel reduce there dead weigh in the course of travelling so they have additional efficiencies which battery driven vehicles which don't reduce their dead weight don't have. As a result, both hybrids and fuel cell driven vehicles are actually more efficient then battery driven vehicles.
The only reason I bring this up is that if it were not for the obsession with zero emission vehicles and the lack of understanding of basic engineering on the part of those pushing battery powered vehicles we would have never pursued that path. As you said hybrids and fuel cells(even if the hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons) are the way to go.

[Down South P.E.]

The only reason I bring this up is that if it were not for the obsession with zero emission vehicles and the lack of understanding of basic engineering on the part of those pushing battery powered vehicles we would have never pursued that path.

True. A basic engineering rule is - it has to be not only technologically but economically feasible otherwise its no good. Electric cars are neither right now - and maybe never. We could probably technologically design a 100 story building that could sustain a fully fueled 757 collision - but it wouldn't be economically feasible.