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According to TFA, this electric mini does not seem to be related to the one built by PML 3 years ago. The four in-wheel motors was an interesting approach. 640 bhp (477 kW), 60mph in 4.5s. With an integrated 250cc 2-cylinder four-stroke gas engine for long trips. (charging the batteries as you go).

My second issue is the power-train. Generally you want as much weight sprung as possible, and electric motors are heavy

But not as heavy as you might think. 20kg/100kW for an in-wheel motor is about the state-of-the-art, and given that it replaces the brake assembly and (part of) the drive shaft it ends up only slightly more than a conventional hub. For example, see:

http://www.pmlflightlink.com/motors/hipa_drive.html

Since last time I checked out that company, they have a) moved everything to do with this to a much less informative website, and b) gone into administration. That is doubly unfortunate, as I think they had some of the best motor technology out there.

Also GM, and all the rest of you. You are toying with so-called "green" cars and hybrids without taking a fundamental look at what makes your products suck so much - using an IC engine at some point to provide traction to the wheels. Look at this: http://www.pmlflightlink.com/archive/news_mini.html. Someone needs to get behind this and productionise it ASAP. It's been around for over 2 years now. 0-60 mph in 5 seconds *AND* 80mpg - if it had just normal family car amounts of power it would probably manage 150-200 mpg. 65mpg is a joke.

Considering that it's easier to build/retrofit "Carbon Capture and Processing" to large exhausts (Like, say, power plants) than it is to add to small exhausts (Like, for example, cars), even coal-fired powerplants are more efficient than petrol-based ones.

And given that generating electricity from coal is around 30-50% efficient (More with gassification) and electric motors are 80-95% efficient (Compared to 25% or less for petrol-based engines), it means a net win for electric vehicles.

Add to that technologies like PML's "Pancake" motors (see here for details, and here for a practical solution, a true "Hybrid" that weighs 20kg more (in total, batteries, motors and all) than it's ICE counterpart) and the Electric Car (or the Electric hybrid (Why has no-one come up with an Electric/BioDiesel hybrid yet? Aren't Diesel generators the best for efficiency, as they run constantly at their (narrow) highest efficiency band?) in the "Need more range" area) has a great future.

And let's not talk about Hydrogen. It's more expensive (both monetarily and environmentally) to produce, more expensive to transport, takes more space to store, has considerably less energy density, and is not likely to improve any faster than other systems already around (EV, PHEV, BioDiesel etc), which makes Hydrogen more of a damp squib than the "Next Big Thing", no matter how the car companies (GM, Toyota) and the oil companies (Shell, BP, Exxon/Texaco/Esso) would like us to think so.

High unsprung weight?

The unsprung weight has increased by less than 2 kg over the original standard Mini. This has been achieved in the first part by removal of the disc, brake caliper, half shafts and cv joints. Secondly we have designed a very light motor and electronics system. As a comparison the power electronics (included inside the wheel) is around 20 times lighter than the lightest currently available alternative! The motor is around 5 times lighter than the closest rival. So we have a 350v 400A continuously rated (0ver 600A peak rating for a few seconds, although this has so far not been used!) system which weighs less than 24kg total.

High unsprung weight?

The unsprung weight has increased by less than 2 kg over the original standard Mini. This has been achieved in the first part by removal of the disc, brake caliper, half shafts and cv joints. Secondly we have designed a very light motor and electronics system. As a comparison the power electronics (included inside the wheel) is around 20 times lighter than the lightest currently available alternative! The motor is around 5 times lighter than the closest rival. So we have a 350v 400A continuously rated (0ver 600A peak rating for a few seconds, although this has so far not been used!) system which weighs less than 24kg total.

Currently only available for the mini, but the system should be workable on most passenger cars:

http://www.pmlflightlink.com/archive/news_mini.htm l