Seems like they would have a readier market in New York, New Jersey using natural gas. After two weeks without power, who would want to return to the grid if there was an affordable alternative?

After losing my grandmother and aunt (who lived a few blocks from the plant) to lung cancer. I'd say this is about 50 years overdue, but who's counting bodies? That's just my relatives who couldn't afford to move away.

OMG! Gimme, gimme. I want one.

I thought Cobasys was a battery company formed by an oil company to undermine battery technology. Don't they still own the patents for the NIMH batteries that powered the EV1? Haven't they been involved in lawsuits with German automakers for delivering defective batteries and/or not delivering at all? Why would good companies like Bosch and Samsung have anything to do with them?

Arnold and Anne, you make some good points. However, everyone in the developed world already has a considerable amount of technology built into their home just to keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. A power generator wouldn't add much to the complexity that is already there. A small generator in the home is going to be more efficient than centralized generation simply because of the resistance in copper lines. Any time you have to send electricity more than a few miles, you are wasting more than you save with the slightly more efficient large-scale generators in a power plant. Anne, duh ... in a power outage, it is easy to install an automated switch that shuts off power to the grid. What would a power-sensing switch cost, about $5?

This is the killer app to cut out utility companies! This could do for energy what cellphones did for telephones. Just imagine, no more power outages that effect entire regions ... reducing energy waste by 60 percent ... giving the homeowner options for installing even greener energy sources. The so-called "Smart Grid" is really very stupid compared to decentralized cogeneration.

Biomass waste? Isn't soil being depleted at least as quickly as fuel?

"Stealth mode" here we come. Bet this is the last we hear of it.

Onsite electricity is the way to go. Less vulnerable to single point failure or terrorist attack. Electrical distribution wastes 10 to 20 percent of the power generated. Heat energy from combustion is put to use immediately and not wasted. These engines burning NG should last 3 to 5x what they would burning diesel because there is no combustion particulates to create carbon and friction in the cylinders. Also they will be easy to replace with cheap Bloom box style fuel cells when they become readily available.

Somewhere there is sanity. I'm moving to New Mexico.

Hate to burst any bubbles here, but with Schlumberger as a lead investor, I'll bet there will never be an application for cars. Not until the last drop of oil burns up.

I kinda like the idea of powering my VW with beetles.

I don't get it. If you are riding a motorcycle, you might as well enjoy the bugs in your teeth. Why have a cover if you can't ride in the rain? You are still dead if the pavement gets slippery. I would buy the Carver concept with two wheels in back, but this one doesn't make sense.

I am assuming "Rejected Energy" is the politically correct way to say wasted energy.

Am I reading this chart correctly? Utilities waste 88% of the energy they produce? That seems high, but then why should a local monopoly care about waste? They make money either way. One more reason to deregulate utilities or simply unplug by installing an 88% efficient residential fuel cell.

I don't get it. It's easier to take a cab, cheaper to take public transportation, and more convenient to join a car sharing program when you want to leave the city. Why would anyone want to own a car in a major city? A lot of people who commute into a city want small fun cars, but it must go FAST, turn FAST and stop FAST if you want to survive amongst trucks and cabs.

So much for the wind bashers.

Better not to make any claims or the FUD mongers will attack like piranhas.

I live on Lake Michigan where in the summer the cold water meets the hot land and in the winter, warm water meets the cold land. As long as the lake doesn't dry up, the wind is always moving toward the lake or away from it. The lake is ringed by coal plants (and a couple of nukes) so that they can cool their turbines, and as a matter of fact waste more than half the energy in the coal. Cooling is synonmous with wasting. Thanks to Carter and the EPA we can now breath the air on most days. But we are still exporting acid rain to Canada which is killing much of their fresh water supply, but I digress. Wind mills ringing the lake Michigan could power the entire midwest with near perfect consistency, without wasting half the energy, and without destroying Canada's fresh water lakes. But that would ruin our view of the coal plant smoke as it wafts off to kill Canadian trout. Ohio could do the same thing with Lake Erie by the way. Not a single windmill on Lake Michigan yet

No joke, I saw Chinese Electric motorcycles at Menards on Saturday. How far behind are electric cars? I would buy this one tomorrow if it were avaialble here: http://greenauto.en.alibaba.com/product/209702785-209282644/Tricycle_with_lithium_battery.html?tracelog=cgsotherproduct4

Can't wait to drive one of those three-wheelers. Clearly the two wheels in front seems to be the way to go for handling. One of the videos shows the TW4XP nearly flipping over trying to avoid a cone, but the other four appear to handle like sports cars. Would have liked to see two drive wheels in the front and rear wheel steering ala the Dymaxion car. Also wonder why electric wheel motors weren't used in any concepts?

China's already got some sweet little electric cars. I don't know much about them except that I want one: http://greenauto.en.alibaba.com/product/254047555-209282644/Electric_Tricycle.html?tracelog=cgsotherproduct2#productDetailpageLocation

The enemy is everyone who makes a dime from fossil fuel, that's about 80% of the economy. I'm surprised electric vehicles have gotten this far. Luckily the Japanese are pushing it, because they have no big stake in fossil fuel.

The 100 mile range is weak compared to their original projections. They certainly failed at one important business strategy: under promise and over deliver.

Finally someone is making sense. Rather than asking "how do we take our current cars and put batteries in them?" Someone is asking a better question, "how do we take current technology and create a vehicle that moves four people from point A to point B?" Reminds me of the Aptera concept.