Good post, Brydo. Plenty to think on there. One question comes to mind: the government gives 2030 as the cutoff for ICE powered cars – have they asked any engineers whether this can actually be done properly by then? Am afraid that government is trying to win popularity regardless of whether their worthy vote-winning plans actually work. Sad thing is that it’ll be the engineers who get the blame when it all goes wonky.
On the other hand, a huge breakthrough in materials technology might yield a hundredfold efficiency boost to solar-cell generation so that the need to plug-in recharge disappears. Vehicle would recharge from solar energy hitting “smart paint”.
Even more bizarre would be the in-wheel motor. You wouldn’t need to buy a car, just a set of wheels each with its own built-in electric drive motor. The lease the body you need – droptop for romantic weekend, SUV for family hols, etc., then just plug in your wheels and go.
Now many would say that these ideas are mad, over-ambitious and beyond our present technology. And all-electric by 2030 is not…?