@chris_home: I don't think anyone ships hydrogen around the world, they make it from natural gas or from electrolysis of water. The former still uses fossil fuel and is barely more efficient than burning the natural gas in a car engine, the latter is a far less efficient use of electricity (and thus fossil fuel)…
@01SNKOWNR: You really can't help over-generalizing, can you? EVs are already viable for the manufacturer and for any driver whose commute is less than 70 miles round-trip, especially multi-car families and urban homeowners with access to a plug. Everyone else is free not to buy one.
@verdegrrl: You're making the same mistake every other armchair analyst does: comparing all the costs and efficiencies of making an electric car's wheels turn with the efficiency of a gallon of gasoline. That IGNORES the costs of producing, refining, and distributing that gallon of gasoline! I've seen estimates that…
@Prismatist steers with his right foot: U.S. Electrical grid transmission and distribution losses were a tiny 6.5% in 2007. Meanwhile you're not factoring in the inefficiencies of producing, refining, and distributing a gallon of gasoline.
@01SNKOWNR: The existing power grid is more than capable of recharging hundreds of thousands of electric cars. Most people will "refuel" at night when there's lots of excess capacity and electricity is cheapest on time-of-use plans.
@Bueller: Cellphones don't manage their batteries' state of charge carefully the way well-engineered electric cars and hybrids do.
Mazda has blathered about hybrid rotary on several occasions:
@gman1023: Nope, you're thinking of the upcoming Renault Fluence Z.E. which has a QuickDrop battery that is compatible with Better Place's robotic swappable battery system. Better Place is trying to get traction for its approach to selling you battery usage; most likely it will be available first in Denmark and…
@Prismatist steers with his right foot: A battery takes hours to charge at best.
Nordost has been making flat cables for years, from the extremely expensive Flatline Red Dawn and Blue Heaven to the collapse-in-a-quivering-heap-ly expensive Odin Supreme or Valhalla speaker cables.
@NomadaNare: What exactly is the damage from practical reliable mid-sized vehicles that get 50mpg and don't pollute at a standstill? Are you suggesting companies should not make them? Your head is in some weird place.
@kake81: But it has been shown that the Prius is more environmentally damaging than an m3,
Are those two things on the sides the underbody exhaust fans for extra downforce?
@A.Jaswal: Wow, you're so confidently clueless and yet wrong (just as you were in the Gizmodo headphone thread).
@Ray Wert,
@Bueller: Beautiful! Pininfarina makes love to Audi 100 proportions, gorgeous baby results. The Audi 100 Coupé doesn't come close, the Germans did much better with the Avant shape.
@WilliamG.: The Volt's electric power train consumes maybe 12-15 thousand Watts (16-20 hp) at 60mph. I can't imagine this "battery-draining electronic crap" will consume more than 60 Watts (what a laptop computer consumes at full blast), 0.5% of the total.