Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
Corect me if I'm wrong but most of the batteries used in hybrids or electric cars are lithium based and have no acid in them. The safety issue with them is high flamability when pierced but IMO that's not very different from gasoline fuel tanks.
Except Lithium ion batteries, unlike gasoline, are self-oxidizing, i.e. once they ignite there's no extinguishing them until they burn themselves out.

Not to mention they're extremely expensive, very heavy, quite dirty to manufacture, and basically nobody would have any interest in this technology if it wasn't for the government shoving it down our throats, either through regulation or massive subsidies.

That's just talking about hybrids. Electric cars are even worse, but for some reason nobody likes to say it. The range problem is virtually unsolvable, since there is no way for a battery to have the energy density of gasoline. It is literally physically impossible. It will never happen, because the laws of physics do not allow it. I don't know how else to say it.

Moreover the fact that a petrol-powered engine keeps chugging along nicely for decades, while a battery pack is basically ruined after a few years, raises questions about how financially viable this technology is.

And then there's the issue of where the electricity is coming from. In the United States, the majority of electricity is generated by coal-burning power plants. I cannot imagine a more inefficient, environmentally unfriendly mode of transportation than fully electric cars. Naturally, this is what the government thinks is the future. Because they're such clever people.