Originally posted by WPRESTO The notion of a universal, standard, drop-in, lift-out battery would absolutely solve the problem of long-distance travel with electric cars.
With the weight of batteries I'd think the best placement is as low and near the centre as possible, so maybe have more of a lift-in, drop-out solution under the car? To get around the potential problem of replacing your shiny new battery with an older would be to rent batteries rather than buying them.
Originally posted by WPRESTO Must I rent for a trip, which means the local rental agency must offer a fleet of gasoline-powered cars?
For me this is the obvious solution (and it is, since we no longer own a car), but a lot of people will live a fair distance from the nearest rental office.
But I don't think the range will be a problem for long with electrical cars. Now that the industry is investing heavily in battery tech it's a matter of time before someone makes a break-through. Another thing is that there are other alternatives to petrol as a fuel. I know hydrogen has its own issues, being both explosive and corrosive etc, but it is at least clean burning. Although, as with electricity, how clean it really is depends on how you make it.
I can't really imagine city dwellers to own private cars for much longer, though. A waste of resources and space to have cars parked for 20+ hours a day. More and more cities are shutting cars out of the city centre. Real estate is getting costly, so reducing the amount of road surface makes sense in built-up areas.
Things don't look quite the same if you live 500km from your nearest neighbour