Hybrids also offer the advantage of range but some of them out there I think could have been engineered a bit better. I'm not going to pick on brands because I like some of them. I do like the way toyota is going though.
I agree audioguru, but it does kind of suck for the smaller lesser known companies out there that build a better product but people are scared to try something new. Tesla has a good line but their production speed is a bit slow and price can be a turnoff.
Hardly anybody has heard of the TESLA Car Company. Their little cars are extremely expensive for their size and cannot go far on one charge (to the local store and back?) like a golf cart. Most people drive inexpensive cars with engines that burn inexpensive gasoline.
Tesla has grown from their original roadster and now have three production vehicles. They have also become a publicly traded company. Their base S model gets 160 miles per charge and the extended option gets 300. Although not cheap, the 160 model is only 49k. The Chevy Volt only gets 35 miles on a charge until it has to run on gas again.
If we can get the battery costs down, the vehicles can be a lot more affordable.
but unless you are a big battery company throwing a lot of money at development you will not be able to. What you CAN do is work with a battery house to make a custom battery PACK to fit where you want it to.
Battery costs aren't going anywhere anytime soon, not with existing technologies at least. Even with economy of scale in a large production facility the materials and construction methods require a certain amount of inherent cost.