“The main issue is the battery and sufficient 'average' power to go up (or down) a mountain (or just a long hill) at high speed (requiring a large ICE-Generator or fuel cell)”



This is incorrect, as I stated a 4 kwh utilized battery is quite sufficient to supply the energy required to go up a steep 12% hill for 2 km, at 100 km/hr, it would be rare to require more energy storage than that, in which case you need only travel at a lower speed (or use a somewhat larger battery). The potential energy a 2000 kg vehicle uses in climbing that height is 1.6 kwh, the rolling / wind resistance required is typically .2 kwh which works out to 1.8 kwh @ 90% motor to wheel power efficiency. This is not a problem, even pure EV’s such as the Tzero have made the trip across the mountains:

“…Interstate 15 to Las Vegas (from Los Angelos) includes two climbs, the Cajon Pass and Baker Grade, both with about 3500 feet of elevation gain. The tzero never faltered and arrived in Las Vegas, 245 miles from AC Propulsion headquarters in San Dimas, with at least 40 miles of reserve range”



“There are no available batteries (yet) that can hold up under the strain of being the primary source of energy for a family car at a reasonable price.”



This is also incorrect. An example:

http://www.everspring.net/product-battery.htm or

http://www.hymotion.com/products.htm

Quote from the PeakOil link, although somewhat outdated technology:

“.. the Ovonic NiMH battery was shown to be capable of allowing battery electric vehicles ranges comparable to gasoline cars with its repeated demonstration of allowing a converted Geo Metro to obtain a highway range in excess of 200 miles per charge in less than ideal conditions [60], and at a total pack cost competitive with an internal combustion engine in high volume [61..”



“…not only a higher capacity battery; the battery must be able to handle high currents without overheating…”

The purpose of the high currents are to capture braking energy, effective battery currents are lower in the series hybrid because of the larger battery, hence high charging efficiency, much greater recovery of braking energy, and lower battery heat generation – all problems quite readily solved in EV’s like the Tesla or Tzero, with virtually no scale economies, and miniscule levels of R&D funding. And of course the larger battery means most energy from downhill travel will be recovered for reuse in uphill travel, not achieved in the parallel hybrid with it’s small battery.



“…we have to be able to afford to buy and maintain the vehicle (the Tesla, a two seater, costs how much…”



At $100G this vehicle outperforms a Ferrari Spider (a similar vehicle style) at $190G, with the equivalent of 130 mpg vs 13 mpg for the Spider, and this with by Detroit Standards, trivial R&D costs, almost no scale economies, and new technology.



“…Please go easy on conspiracy theorys. Big Auto (US) is just run by stupid executives with no vision. Big oil has little to say about what cars get produced and sold…”



Conspiracy theories is a mickey-mouse phrase, usually used by gullible fools, who cannot otherwise justify their naïve view of the world. The real world of politics and business interests is inundated with corporate collusion & price fixing, cartels, political patronage dealers and lobbyists, corruption, vested interests, phony “grassroots” campaigns, phony corporate funded “research”, public disinformation efforts of a multitude of types,… to name a few examples.

Do you believe George “I’d sell my soul for Oil” Bush really invaded Iraq to get at those WMD’s?

If you think there is no corporate efforts on the part of Big Oil & Big Auto and their servants in Washington, explain these quotes from:

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic8972.html

“…After the Ovonic NiMH battery was shown to be capable of allowing battery electric vehicles ranges comparable to gasoline cars with its repeated demonstration of allowing a converted Geo Metro to obtain a highway range in excess of 200 miles per charge in less than ideal conditions [60], and at a total pack cost competitive with an internal combustion engine in high volume [61], its patent was bought out by Chevron-Texaco, who refuses to mass market the battery at a price affordable to hobbyists and small manufacturers to this day. They are so protective of the patent, that they have sued Toyota for using an allegedly copied version of the battery in its Prius hybrid [62]. There is no reason pertaining to technological limitations why these batteries cannot be placed into conversions by hobbyists and into commercially-manufactured EVs by small businesses for an affordable price. I personally suggest that those reasons are political in nature. To quote Victor Tikhonov of Metric Mind Engineering on the NiMH battery, “Not available for non-technical reasons and may never be to you and to me [63].” The Oilies can be thanked for that….”

“… The big three were caught trying to use the United States Advanced Battery Consortium to keep Stan Ovshinsky from revealing the capabilities of his NiMH battery to the public at a CARB hearing. Ovshinsky remarked, “They tried to stop us from going to California. They threatened us! I said to them, ‘Look, the Communist Party no longer runs the world. A party line cannot be imposed upon people who don’t believe in it. The consortium is set up to make sure the American public has an electric car. It was not set up to fight the mandate. We are a battery company, and we’re not going to lie to the public [77]!’” Further, battery companies were bound by GM not to reveal to the public the advances in battery electric vehicle technology they had made [78]. Ovshinsky also remarked about the viability of his NiMH battery, “The people who are saying that battery technology isn’t ready are absolutely wrong. It’s part of the party line. It’s self-perpetuating. It’s very sad. You tell a lie big enough and long enough, and people start to believe it. The fact of the matter is volume. That’s the only reason batteries are the cost that they are. [79]” Indeed, as mentioned, in volume, the price for an automotive-sized Ovonic NiMH battery pack was competitive with an internal combustion engine, assuming units for 20,000 cars were produced each year [61]… “



“DARPA has unlimited funds (our tax money) so don't assume that their solutions suit our needs”



The amount of funds DARPA spent on developing the series hybrid HumVee are trivial compared to what GM could muster on such important technology, and trivial compared to what the government funds on the phony “United States Advanced Battery Consortium” and the nutty “the Freedom Car Initiative” / Hydrogen Economy / Fuel Cell boondoggle, not to mention massive subsidies to the “cash strapped” oil industry.