This is a minatory post regarding electric power.

In the late 1970's and 89's the Austrians won all the major competitions in glider aircraft because they recognized that if a winning formula was to be put together, speeds had reached a point where industrial processes needed to be involved, so the national association of modellers received modest funding and assistance from people knowledgeable about creating light carbon fibre structured and bodied aircraft. They fielded a team with virtually the same plane and won year after year. There was no way the independent garage or basement based competitors from everywhere, especially the United States could compete. Now I've been out of aeromodelling for a long time, but at the same time the above happened huge advances were being made in the small electrical motors and battery packs being built for model aircraft in Switzerland and Germany and Scandinavia.

"So what!", I hear you all grumbling. Well advances that can be made small can lead to significant things when enlarged. There are a number of European electric cars ready to go, all because their governments dropped a few hundred thoudand dollars on research in quiet corners, while Detroit was trying to popularize the biggest gas guzzler on the planet, The Hummer, for family use.

Now we'd already seen the Volkswagen come in in the 1950's, and the Japanese come in in the late 60's and 70' and Mercedes and BMW come in in the 80's to the point where Detroit land barges sat on the lots. Ford, UK, had a number of cars that could have done extremely well here, including a replacement for the VW Bug, but Ford didn't want it. They still learned enough not to need bailing out. They got the Escort from Britain, and the Focus, and the Mercury Contour which was a cheapened version of what I drove in Britain, the Mondeo. The Mondeo didn't sell all that well, because they stripped all the nice bits off it, but I notice a surprising number of them still driving around which suggests reliability.

What I'm pointing out is that the car companies abroad and governments abroad are working together to create the vehicles that have hamstrung the American Car industry, and if fuel efficiency, efficiency in size, and a sensible concept of public needs don't get fufilled by the car companies, they're going down the tubes again.

Put the huge transports in special lanes so that they don't mix with small traffic except at lower speeds and keep the cars small and efficient. You'll use less energy, recover a part of your lost share of the car market, and anyone who wants a Lincoln or a Cadillac has switched to a Mercedes or BMW influenced car anyway.

Rob