How electric cars should be designed

[jeffmorris]

Right now, electric cars are suitable for driving within a city, not for driving from one city to other. I thought that people who buy electric cars charge them at home. Public charging stations don't give cars full amount of electricity. For example, a public charging station says it can charge 150 AMPS but it really charges 100 AMPS. Chrysler Corp will make a new pickup truck that will have its engine running a generator that will run electric motors, much like diesel-electric locomotives. I'm not sure if the batteries will run the motors when the engine is shut down. Electric cars should be designed so that the engine charges the batteries so that cars can run on batteries within the city and if the car senses that it's running low on battery power, its engine can start and charge the batteries.

[Blue Bowtie]

I believe that's a description which loosely fits the "hybrid" power system which has been available for quite some time, but with an important distinction which I have considered for a couple of decades.

The problem I see is that the auto companies are reluctant to diverge away from the central power plant and mechanical transmission of power to the wheels. It's evidently difficult for SAE to let go of Ransom Eli Olds' 1896 concept.