And I’d assume Tesla installed liquid cooling because when you are running a hundred amps though a motor of that size you have to have some way of keeping the windings cool.  It’s not so much about the heat generation as it is the power density.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/11/shocker-chevy-says-volts-gas-engine-can-power-the-wheels-its/

Exactly so. Liquid/highly compressed hydrogen as a fuel isn’t so much a source of energy as it is a medium of energy storage akin to a battery. The hydrogen must first be generated at an associated energy cost and then liquified/super compressed (with another associated energy cost) to make it compact enough for use as a vehicle fuel, and the energy return from the hydrogen is at a ratio of less than unity (below 1), so the end result is that you get less energy out than you put in to start with. And that is why hydrogen is not an energy source. Anything that requires more energy to produce than it returns is not an energy source but is a method of storage (at a loss), AKA a battery.

Perhaps because it is only a few minutes stopping time, people tend to think of a gasoline-powered car as able to drive forever. The truth is, you still have a finite distance before you have to refuel. The two kinds of cars are fundamentally the same, the problem is in how much fuel you can carry with you and how long it takes to replenish. Will we ever have battery tech that holds enough juice for 400 miles, that can be refueled in 2 minutes? Or are we going to rework a century of conditioning that tells us our travel is cheap and fast? In the last 5 months I have been made much more aware of the “cost” of travelling just because I can now see it, in real time, on my dashboard. It definitely changes the way I drive. Unfortunately, I don’t think the masses will see it that way. They’ll want to be able to drive long distances and only stop the minimum of times for a few minutes each. 

It’s 7C in Grass Valley and -9C in Truckee at the moment. This is a big state with a wildly varied climate. Electric cars a becoming popular even up here, although it will take Subaru coming out with an all electric 4 or all wheel-drive to really take over. This is Cult of Subaru country and nearly every other vehicle here is a Subaru 4WD of one sort or another.

As an American who sees Mexican immigrants constantly working hard at low paying, labor intensive jobs, risking life and limb to cross borders and deadly deserts to get here, then facing exploitation and abuse once they do, I find that sentiment not so much to be “chauvinist” (too nice a word) as I find it to be simple bigotry/racism.

I can’t really get too worked up about German’s being stereotyped for what is essentially a positive trait.

You’d avoid the necessity for a standard sized battery, so big cars could have a bigger tank (as opposed to multiple standard sizes), etc; you’d avoid the need for robotic arms to pull batteries in and out.

In a conventional vehicle, about 70% of the gasoline burned goes into waste heat, so there’s plenty for toasting your tootsies in the winter. 

FWIW, the Toyota Prius is only modestly more efficient than a conventional gasoline powered car, but it has to run the engine more to keep the cabin warm when outside temperatures drop into the teens.  The average FE improves when you shut off the heater.