Massive Incentives Time!

This is the kind of thing we need to be incentivizing heavily if we are to weather the energy shocks that loom on the horizon.

A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.

Four 160hp motors! 250 mile all-electric range! Hell, I'd just take the combustion motor out entirely. Who needs the extra weight when you've got the daily range you need?

That technology would eliminate the drive train, increase the interior space in the car, accelerate like only an electric car can, and use regenerative breaking to increase the efficiency even more. In fact, all the braking done by the vehicle is done by the electric motors in generator mode. That's spectacular. I want one. Unfortunately, they don't have a price tag on this prototype, but with an assembly-line production style rather than the hand-crafting this one got, I bet they could slide into the affordable range.