John,
Along similar lines to your thoughts, I think the problem of electric car
range could be solved if four things would take place:

First, the Society of Automotive Engineers would agree on one or a few
standard battery sizes

Second, the manufacturers designed electric cars so they were "bottom
loading"

Third, when you bought the car, you owned everything but the battery, which
belonged to the national pool of batteries.

Fourth, service stations (or anywhere, for that matter) installed
drive-through facilities, not unlike drive-through car washes at gas
stations today where the swap to a recharged battery could take place
automatically in a few minutes with the swipe of a credit card. Part of the
cost of the recharge would go to replacing failed batteries with new ones as
they wore out.

Jim

On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 7:07 AM, John Rodgers <inua@charter.net> wrote:

> Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>
>>
>> I can't quite see that there will be electric cars that can drive vast
>> distances across the west at 80 mph,, with a quick refueling every 300
>> miles
>> or so, like a good gasoline car can. But maybe they'll get that.
>>
>>  The key to this problem may be standardized batteries for all cars.
> Then, much like the propane cylinder swap places - drive in, swap your
> discharged battery (batteries) for fully charged ones and be on your
> way.'Course everything would have to be designed around that kind of
> delivery system. - shap of the car, shape of the battery box, types of
> batteries, all must match up.. But could be done.
>
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>