On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:29:24 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:


Some sort of inductive power transmission from vehicle to car might
allow a better system involving batteries as the power to drive the car
is from external means, and then the battery can go "off grid" for the
bits of road that aren't so equipped.....

Many moons ago someone did produce a prototype electric car that
incorporated a small diesel generator (basically the V twin engine
from a small dumper truck). The idea was to charge the batteries from
the mains as normal but also to run the diesel generator at a fixed
(very efficient) load/throttle setting so it acted as a range
extender. Using lead acid batteries (this pre-dated Lithium by
decades!) it gave a useful range of a few hundred miles and average
fuel efficiency of 100MPG or better.