I made a joke in another thread that got me thinking about this. Many people think the next step is a plug-in hybrid. You can drive 60-100 miles a day on a charge and the ICE is only used for longer trips that will deplete the battery. It's conceivable that people that use these cars as commuters will only drive signifcantly less than 60 miles per day. That would mean there's no reason for the ICE to start.

For anyone who's left gas in a lawnmower over the winter you have to realize that's not good for an engine. How will the automakers overcome this? Will you have to add gas stabilizer every so often? Will they have the ICE turn on when the engine's cold like it does now?