What about batteries that are recyclable? BYD has created a plug-in hybrid with batteries that use nontoxic electrolytes. This should cut out many of the recycling problems we have with current batteries:
The car goes 60+ mi before needing to use the gas engine. I haven't done much research on performance/reliability/safety though the article does say the BYD cars lack the polish of Toyota's.
Replaceable as in "gas-station replaceable". With a top that's easy to remove and a mechanism to take them out and put another set in in less then 5 minutes. Without this, most of the ideas in the video don't really work.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric....
The car goes 60+ mi before needing to use the gas engine. I haven't done much research on performance/reliability/safety though the article does say the BYD cars lack the polish of Toyota's.