RE: MIT's radical proposal for an ultra-compact, foldable electric vehicle
2 problems still arise: Those of us who do not live in the city but need to "commute" into the city - we would still need a car that can reach highway speeds for much more than 20 miles.
Second problem - electricity is not free - and it still has a carbon footprint, no matter which way you look at it. In places that rely on gas/coal fired power plants, all you are doing is shifting the primary CO emissions from a vehicles motor to the power plants.
In an ideal world, most families would need 2 vehicles then - one electric, mini, foldable and low powered, and the second, a mid-to-full-sized highway capable vehicle for those longer trips.
I think the MIT team is being too myopic with their announcements that only focus on the "inner city" aspects of transportation, and their so-called "first mile/last mile". While that may be true for core City-Dwellers, it still does not address a growing population that live outside any city limits.
We need something a bit more relevant to todays requirements, and not pipe-dreams.
