I have considered this on a 940 estate (lots of solar panel area). In
the process I found the best kept secret about electric cars.
You can easily extend the range of an electric drive car by using a
small petrol generator (or anything really..steam, Hydrogen, etc).
Typically you can expect 100mpg if you don't use the plug in charging,
300mpg cost equivalent if you do. Goes to show just how inefficient IC
driven cars are.
Combine with some solar panels and it might make the 25mile journey to
work free. Although Solar panels are pricey they do pay off, and now
Nano-solar can do panels for 1$ per watt, while less efficient than
silicon panels are in a new league in price. Just waiting for enough
production so we can buy them.
Volvo have a concept car with 4 wheel electric drive (4 motors) and 1.6L
petrol engine, called a plug-in hybrid. The petrol engine is not
connected mechanically to the wheels and is much more efficient than the
Prius type.
Electric may not have great range but it is so much cheaper/mile. The
only other down side is battery replacement, but I think the economy
more than compensates for this and there is plenty of work to do in
improvements and combining various storage methods.
And don't think Engine motors are weak, pound for pound they are around
4 times more powerful than a standard petrol engine. Downside is
batteries weight more than fuel, but comparing Li-Po
batteries+equivalent motor with a petrol power plant+fuel they weight,
perform and last for the same amount of time. Just look at the RC Models
these days, IC power is now much less popular than it was, especially
with newcommers. You can even get a single seater sport plane that runs
on electric alone, companies are looking at further scaling up.
The future is electric, the oil companies cannot kept it quiet any longer.
I quite liked the idea of starting a business converting cars, but needs
some significant development and investment. Old Volvo's would be
ideal as they are cheap and rust free.
