My Trefis

Jack--Your comment hit the nail on the head and is one the reasons why rechargeable battery EVs have been a failure for over a hundred years,The finest designed internal combustion engine (ICE) powered automobile is useless without fuel (gasoline, alcohol, natural gas, etc.).
The finest designed electric vehicle (EV) powered automobile is useless without a power supply (rechargeable batteries, Fuel Cells).
For the idea of an EV ( for which I am for--for many reasons) we see the ONLY power supply available, other than the battery, is the Fuel Cell. Why the Fuel Cell? The Fuel Cell allows an EV to operate like an ICE. As long as there is fuel available, the car will go and give the same performance as a comparable ICE. The Fuel Cell is a direct conversion device, there just ain't anything better than that. As your comment showed, all heat engine driven electric generators are indirect devices, thereby limiting their efficiency, with the waste products adding to the polution. All the financial drivel that the financial writers like to throw out to the public in order to impress us with their financial acumen dosen't have a thing to do with the success or failure of ANY RCBEV project. It is a technical problem, not a financial one. And that technical problem is the battery, or as might be said "it's the battery stupid." When the ignorant public finally wakes up to this simple fact, the RCBEV will be nothing more than a glitch in history. Of course, the financial writers will write long dissertations analyzing the failure to death as financial one (or more) completely ignoring the truth, because that is how they make their money--writing financial drivel. [ less... ]