re: #226 ckkatz

My Grandfather, born in 1890 on a Missouri farm and who became an engineer for Massey Ferguson in the 1920’s and 1930’s, mentioned that issue to me at one point.

After living through two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Robber Barons, he did not have a lot of respect for the ruling corporate elite. And his view was that the migration to internal combustion engine rather than all electric was a fix by big oil.

For many years the only people pushing large, high capacity propulsion battery research were the navies of the world who needed them for submerged submarine operation. A 2001 lead acid battery is only incrementally more efficient that a 1901 example.