I chuckle when I read about mileage claims for hybrid cars. Back in the 80s, I had a diesel VW Rabbit that routinely got 45-50 miles per gallon. It was older, simpler technology and it worked well. That, plus it had really good range between refills. I didn't like that car, but on many counts, it beat the pants off current hybrid technology.
Running a few approximate conversion efficiency numbers, I don't see where there is any great energy efficiency difference between an all electric car and current gasoline or diesel technology. They both come out about 20% efficient, or a little more or less. I'm not seeing a huge efficiency bonus by switching to all-electric.
There is a new technology that I think has some interesting possibilities. Automobile pistons are run boxer style, and move permanent magnets back and forth through coils of wire, generating electricity. There isn't a conversion to rotary motion. That might turn out to be more efficient, and do away with the transmission and such.
As far as running your house of a lithium battery....color me skeptical. The ones I'm familiar with are good for about 5-600 charge-discharge cycles. My off the cuff guess is that you'd wear out the battery long before your savings on your electric bill would buy you a new one.
We will see some wonderful advances, and some big problems solved, but probably not in the way many people expect.
Last edited by denton; 09/24/15.
