Quote Originally Posted by bluuford View Post
WRC has been always something where new technologies have been tested. Battery technology is old technology and and does not have sustainable future in current format (I say it as a part time geologist - my PhD study was on the borderline of ecology and geology). If we take all known geological resources, we can change all the cars to battery technology, but there are no more resources to replace all those batteries in the future, unless some new technology will be invented.

One of the most important law I studied at school was the law that was telling "the more weight you carry, the more energy you need." So, for me it is very strange that so far this law is ignored. We carry hybrid unit, we carry batteries and in total, depends on the car, proper Tesla battery weight is between 400-500 kg. and now imagine, millions of cars are carrying this extra weight.. does not sound very sustainable?
MK2 is right, we need concentrated energy. Hydrogen is on of them Currently Toyota Mirai fuel tank weight is around 80 kg, fuel capacity is around 5 kg, so, the weight in car is 85 kg. And you can cover approximately 500 km with this tank. For me, this is the way to develop. Hydrogen can be produced when the energy is cheap (too much wind or sun energy, high peaks of nuclear energy production and low consumption at the same time). So, we don't need to carry "power station" in each car, energy can be produced in centralized locations and we use only concentrated fuel.
At the same time it is hard to achieve, car manufacturers have made their investments in electric cars. Normal investment cycle is 30 years, 10 years you develop and spend money, next 10 years you earn back your investment, and final 10 years you earn profit.

WRC does not need to follow it, we can be innovative for once and not use 100+ years old technology and say it is new
Yes, battery technology is old technology, but it is nowhere near developed to its full potential whereas ICE technology has reached 99,9% of it's possibilities. Battery tech is already showing promising solutions and I am sure as material technology is also helping bring innovative solutions we will see much more energy dense packs in the future. Car industry "big money" has supported battery tech far too short period to call it a dead end. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are also in principle electric cars which carry power plant with them to make electricity from H2 to store it shortly in battery, then use it with electric motor. That's a big issue with H2 in transportation, it has a lot of losses of energy compared to only battery powered cars and it makes cars more complicated.