Electric car

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I live in a country with many electric cars. The government here taxes everything, so the Norwegian net salaries for skilled workers and graduates aren't higher than in the UK, Germany or many other western countries. They do not tax electric cars, though, so you have regular middle-class people owning Teslas.

It is extremely rare for an electric car to catch fire; much less likely than a gasoline-powered car.

I think that flexible solar cells mounted all over the body of an electric vehicle, as well as something like a flywheel regenerative brake system could go a long way toward reducing the amount of battery a car would need to carry. As well as using more efficiently designed electric motors.

i read a while ago, that chrysler was working on extracting hydrogen from ordinary gasoline, to power electric vehicles with. how ironic, to gas up your [chrysler] electric car.

various people have experimented with using compressed air as an energy storage medium. solar power could run the air compressor while the car is resting, topping up the tank as it were. the compressed air basically powers an engine with pistons. for city cars this has been proven to be practical with enough range to get around town. less expensive than a buncha batteries.

^^ ^^ ^^ etc. Just found this thread.
The Air Car was a stock fraud. Air gives very low range, and if every car used it, traffic jams and parking lots would be highly explosive. Batteries and gasoline can burn, but air can release all its power at once.

There have been tremendous advances in lightweight electric motors lately, using pancake designs and new construction techniques, as well as better magnets and electronic commutation. It is a new frontier.

The solar race cars competing in Australia are showing the limits of the area of a car vs its power draw. However, in sunny places, a neighbourhood runabout seems feasible.

The biggest bone I have to pick with modern electric cars is that people are starting from the gasoline car rather than a velomobile. There is no good excuse for a land vehicle to weigh more than its payload. If we are going electric, we can also merge the trends toward self-driving cars and delivery robots, light rail, and electric trains. Our pods should be able to form road trains in special lanes to reduce air resistance and improve both road usage and safety. The trains can re-form at entrances and exits like regular freeway traffic, but again with computers planning the merging safely.

self-driving cars electronically connected via something like 5G wouldn't need physical bonds, they would automatically form in closer order, perhaps a foot away from each other to form virtual caravans designed to greatly increase traffic density and fit more cars onto the existing roads. cheaper in the long run than building more roads.

i wonder if any oldsters [like me] among us will live long enough to experience this brave new techy world?