[Gdeaver]

When looking at all electric vehicles, most tend to not look at the over all system. If you include the losses at the power plant, electric transmission, and charging losses, electric vehicles are not very attractive from an over all perspective. Their environmental impact is very good at the localized level, but their over all environmental impact is not as attractive.
The internal combustion engine is the prime mover of our society. Hybrids try to increase the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine has terrible thermal efficiency. BMW has developed a 2 stage sterling engine add on that greatly improves the thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine. Now if you could rap up a sterling, hybrid into a small light weight cost effective package you might have something. Yes the future engineers have plenty of problems to solve. The impending energy and enviromental crisis makes the mission of FIRST all that more important.