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What's so exasperating is that manufacturers and the public still aren't taking aerodynamics seriously enough. How smooth is the underside of your electric car? Probably nowhere near as smooth as it could be. Last time I looked, the Leaf had a structural crosshatch pattern showing on the underside. Overlarge grill openings at the front are still quite common. Many people feel that wheel skirts are ugly and will even take them off though that causes 5% more fuel consumption. The fuel economy could be doubled just with better aero. Take a look at the Aerocivic. 95 mpg! The electric version of the Very Light Car gets more than double the range of the Leaf.

But no. That low hanging fruit is left to rot on the tree, while people whine about and sweat over range anxiety.

it seems the only cure offered is to either severely restrict our lifestyles or increase the costs of everything so that it has that same effect

That is standard denialist fearmongering and propaganda, this thinking that the only cure is lots of sacrifice. It's not true. It's the opposite. It will employ an awful lot of people to do much of the work we can do to address Climate Change. That's a lot of jobs.

Lots of those things will also make our personal lives better. In general, it's called efficiency. Now flat screens are in nearly every way better than CRTs. Refrigerators became much more efficient in 1996.

People should get over their predujices about what makes cars pretty, and embrace better aerodynamics. One example is the Aerocivic. As noted on that site, there were bonuses with the improved aerodynamics: the car is quieter, stays cleaner, and is steadier, which makes it safer. Trucks can use vortex generators. One guy I know objected to vortex generators on the grounds that they were ugly. I asked him why was it important whether an already butt ugly truck trailer not have these? Surely not for the sake of beauty?

Then there are roads. Who could possibly object to smarter traffic lights? Everyone who has ever driven much has had the experience of being stuck at a red light for nothing, because currently the devices are not capable of sensing traffic soon enough to be proactive. They are essentially mindless with no ability to learn traffic patterns and adjust their timing.

Here are some hard numbers: the Aerocivic. With home made modifications to the shape, this guy doubled the fuel economy of an ordinary Honda Civic, from its pretty good factory rating of about 47 mpg to 95 mpg.

As you requested. 95 mpg Honda Civic http://www.aerocivic.com/ With instructions.

Nope. You'd have to pull out a number of safety features (likely illegal to sell, and possibly illegal to drive). Airbags that don't help belted passengers, bumpers designed to resist damage in 5 mph and slower crashes (yes, bumpers have damage resistance as a feature equal to or greater than safety), and loads of heavy and mostly ineffective sound deadening are burdening the modern car. The old ones had poor suspension, overly heavy bodies and such, but you could strip out almost everything (and even replace the frame with a light-weight tubular design), and have something lighter than today's cars. The only thing you get from today's cars is a smaller package with better aerodynamics. But the available improvements are smaller, so it's hard to get the same level of improvements. Intake/exhaust and computer change will get most non-turbo cars 10% to power and efficiency, but beyond that, it's harder to get more. I left out turbos because it's easier to trade efficiency for power or vice versa, and the percentages depend on the vehicles (you won't get much more efficiency out of Audis and Saabs with efficiency tuned turbos, but Chevy's turbo-Diesel trucks have loads of capabilities from things like a DuraMaximizer).

Some ugly-ass backyard Aerodynamic modifications can get 45% improvement in fuel economy http://www.aerocivic.com/ Also modifying a engine computer will get you much more than 10%. Properly done lean-burn might get you 25% or more.

Intake/exhaust will net you effectively zero efficiency improvement under economy driving conditions. This is much debated and the verdict is MPG improvement of such mods is marketting BS. You might seem some benefit if you have a turbo diesel or some unusual high-load application.

As for weight, yes that's a tough one to beat without compromising safety etc.

They mount them on hinges and have rollers for tire contact when turning the wheels sharply, how about a Honda Civic getting 95 mpg (US) at 65 mph and Cd that tested out to be around 0.17, to make up for the inconvenience. I know the car is butt ugly, but that mostly due to the use of coroplast and duct tape instead of foam and fiberglass body work.

If they worked more on about aerodynamics than aesthetics it would be easy. http://aerocivic.com/

So unless you are prepared to lie flat in a coffin shaped car, your pretty much stuck with the crossection of a Honda as the minimum useful car. Thus there's no way to beat that power demand by more than a small percentage let alone a factor of even 2.

Mike Turner modified his Honda Civic to reduce its Cd from 0.34 to 0.17 for less than $400 in parts. That is exactly a factor of 2.

The engine isn't the only area of improvement, though. Aerodynamic can go a long way. People have demonstrated mods to gasoline vehicles with near-100% mileage gains.

See: http://www.aerocivic.com/

There's a list at the bottom containing many mods done by other people.

There's nothing unfeasible about a 30+ km range. I agree that hundreds would be ludicrous without some new technology, but a cheap two-seater air-powered car would be a fine alternative to some of these expensive carts older people travel around in, and would be usable for other scenarios.

You'll have a hard time convincing me there isn't some market for short-range air powered cars, if the price is low enough.

One area that has mostly been ignored with cars, is more aerodynamic chassis.

A few people have modified their own cars to closer resemble airplanes. These modded cars get anywhere from 60-90mpg, depending on the efficiency of the vehicle they started with.

http://www.aerocivic.com/

Take a look. At the bottom of the page is a list of other modded cars. It's pretty impressive.

Something like that would cut our car emissions in half if everybody did it - or if car companies started making their vehicles aerodynamic.

Since our population won't double overnight, it would buy us a couple decades.

This guy modified his honda civic to achieve .17 Cd and now he gets 95mpg at 65 mph:
http://www.aerocivic.com/