There has been an interesting article written by Jamie Turner and Chris Brace, from the University of Bath, which argues that hybrid petro-electric vehicles and fully electric vehicles have no long-term, mainstream future. They state that this is due to the fact that compared to the money and technology lavished on the very well developed internal combustion (IC), the electro/hybrid alternatives have not benefitted similarly; so commercially viable technology is limited.

Their interesting alternative is to generate methane in a central production plant, by combining hydrogen with waste or background carbon dioxide, and use this as a forecourt fuel. With methane of course, the internal combustion engine would prevail.

There are some technical challenges with this concept, the biggest being the extraction of carbon dioxide from atmosphere and electrolysis to generate hydrogen. Both of which will require significant electrical load and further development to become commercially viable. In order for either process to be considered sustainable, the electricity used would need to be derived from renewable sources itself.

Speaking as a driver of a hybridised vehicle (Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV), I can understand some of the authors’ assertions.

In order to get a sensible range, the car is fitted with both a petrol engine and a battery bank (to feed the electric motors), which makes the car pretty heavy. I can get 26 miles of pure battery power from a plugged in charge, but I then need to rely on the petrol engine to take me the rest of the way. The downside to this is that petrol power delivers, at best, 40 miles per gallon - around half that of the most efficient IC only car available on the market.

Whilst re-charging for free at Motorway services is an option (an 80% charge can be achieved in less than 30 minutes), the cost of the coffee while waiting easily outweighs the financial saving…!

The Tesla fares better than most hybrid vehicles, mainly due to the fact that it is not hindered by the weight of an internal combustion engine. This gives it far better range on battery power than hybrids. However, there’s no getting away from the ‘range anxiety’ suffered by nervous electric vehicle drivers wanting to get home.

I have often wondered what is holding up the development of quick swap battery systems? If it was possible to drive into a service station, get the battery bank unplugged from the car and replace it with a fully recharged one in under 5 minutes then this would seriously challenge the two main issues – range and speed of re-charge.