Thanks for your thoughts everyone, but there are some real misconceptions here which need looking at. Delta3 makes a point about transmission efficiency which is fair enough but his numbers come from... well, the top of his head probably.
A coal-fired power station is several times more efficient than a coal-fired steam engine, easily overcoming the transmission loss from high-tension cables. The same goes for any other type of primary fuel. The fact that batteries are a 'secondary' power source is simply not a problem from an efficiency point of view.
His point about electric car development is partially true. Ford and GM are busy recalling and scrapping the electric vehicles they designed for California beacause they're
too good.
Instead we have the idea of hydrogen as a scondary fuel. Now this is a seriously flawed, and plenty of people believe the fuel-cell is a deliberate diversion by the oil industry.
Further reading at
EV World article
Hoss 1's story about the Orlando experiment is the best lead so far.... care to tell us more, Hoss 1?
Benet