While a train can include a separate car or two with an immense battery set, a long-range car or bus should be a full series hybrid, not the parallel versions we use now. Instead of a fairly powerful gasoline engine assisted by an electric motor, a series hybrid (like a train engine or strip-mine truck) only uses its fuel engine as a generator. There is a big increase in efficiency when that motor can be run full out, on or off, without the challenge of smooth throttle response.

I would like a car with an electric motor like the Tesla's, but with a smaller battery set, a fuel tank, and a fuel motor just a little bigger than needed for holding highway speed. This would be roughly 30 hp or so, for a Prius-sized car. The excess allows recharging while holding speed, to provide acceleration and hill power. And with a dedicated generator/engine, mileage should be near 100 mpg.

With no need for acceleration power and no need for good throttle response, any fuel works, from methane to alcohol, or a diesel could run on algae oil and used frying grease. And the mid-size battery set would still allow straight charging from homeowner's or employer's solar panels, for a fuel-free commute.   Trucks have plenty of room for batteries, and little need for fast acceleration; getting up the hill is enough. Satisfying trucking power demand should be easier than for the automobile, and trains are easier yet. Long-haul freight already gets the equivalent of 300 mpg---how hard could it be to run those trains on batteries? But they don't need to, since they are so maxed out for efficiency already. Still, it's fun to think about railroads lining their rights-of-way with solar panels and electrifying the rails, with the train engine taking extra juice to keep its batteries topped for those grades and cloudy days.

If employers at large sites like the Pentagon covered their parking lots with solar panels they could sell power to employees, as well as to the community grid. Does 600 megawatts sound like a large amount? It's a medium-sized coal plant, or the Pentagon's peak solar power output using its 3 square kilometers of roof and parking. Next time you fly, look out the window at all the warehouse and store roofs , the parking lots, and the roadways. Cover that with solar.

First Solar is supplying panels at $1/Watt in large quantities, and that price will work its way down to smaller setups soon. The Tesla Roadster needs roughly 10 KwHrs for a 50-mile commute roundtrip. A setup with 2000W peak output, maybe ten square meters, could deliver that charge in a day's shift at work. That's something like 8ft. by 12 ft., or a parking slot, roofed with panels, protecting the car from sun and hail. True that its usefulness is somewhat seasonal, but still worth it if the parking slot can earn a few extra bucks every day, even when it's empty.  The panels keep the bird droppings off your Tesla, too. The lot probably would charge a premium, higher than average home rates, but convenient for heading home with a full charge, and it could be a deductible expense to offset that cost, for users.

My next car will likely have an electric motor---cool, I'm tired of the sound of pistons pounding and the complexity of fuel delivery and ignition. The little generator engine will be nearly silent, and when pulling power I'll just hear gears humming.