http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/09/10 ... brid_merc/

I know we've got a lot of car fans here

18.5 mile range?

That's more than the mile or so the Prius can manage on its battery...

It is a hybrid, so the petrol motor will take over, as usual, when the vehicle goes over 30mph or the battery doesn't have enough charge (or the driver accelerates hard).

Compared to other hybrids, that range isn't bad.

Hybrids. Meh.

I want proper electric cars, not these fudges.

Bollocks. Complete and utter bollocks.

Would you care to provide anything more constructive?

It's a prototype, goodness knows what they have in there that you are going to be completely ignorant of.

Marketing bumph.

I agree, in principle, but the problem is, there just isn't the infrastructure to cope with electric vehicles and the battery technology isn't good enough, yet.

Fuel Cell is probably the way forward, but, again, refuelling station need to be in place. It is all a bit chicken and egg at the moment.

For my normal commute, a battery driven car would be fine, I'd have to recharge it once or twice a week. But I also have to look after two other sites, one of which is a 700KM round trip. None of the production family electric cars would, currently, be able to get me there, let alone back in one day.

The Tesla S Class looks very interesting, but I'd still need a second car or a hire car for longer journeys.

I'm looking forward to the day that I can switch to an electric/fuel cell car. In the meantime, I'll carry on with my diesel, I like the look of the Prius, but I'm buying a house, so getting a new car, hybrid or electric, will have to wait.

I'd like to know how they calculate the figures, because adding extra weight does not make a car more efficient. The Pious would be more economical without the electrics when used for longer journeys with a lot of steady cruising.

If they calculate the true carbon cost of electricity in the UK, then I doubt the figures will be anything like that. Power stations are more efficient than your average car engine, but then you have to include transmission and storage losses. These are very significant.

I love the idea of electric cars; but we need non-fossil power stations before they make any real sense.

I was reading Wired the other day and there was an article about the guy (I forget his name) who started the "X Prize".

Most of you will probably know the Ansari X Prize - CLICKY - (the one that Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites won by flying sub orbital twice within two weeks).

Well there is another one called the Progressive Automotive X Prize CLICKY!

The winner of this one is the first person (company) to create a viable production car (not just a super expensive one off concept) that is financially stable in full scale production and uses the current fuelling infrastructure now (with no changes or "waiting for something to change") and can achieve a petrol car equivalent (in terms of cost and pollution (also taking into consideration the power station emissins in the production of any electrcity used)) of 100mpg or more.

If anything has the chance of revolutionising the car industry it is this.

It looks like it's going to be won next year