I wrote:
> If it was a small battery that trickle charged the batteries, the electric > car might run out of power in the middle of nowhere. > Obviously that could also happen if you leave the trickle charge battery at home. My point is, if you had an onboard battery you might be less likely to pay attention to remaining battery charge. You would probably get into the habit of popping in and driving off without checking it, because most days it would be recharged overnight. Everyone who drives electric vehicles today has to pay close attention to the remaining charge. The range is small and it is hard to find a place to recharge. When Navy ships were powered by coal, admirals had to worry constantly about running out of fuel. There was a generation of admirals in the 1930s who did a lousy job commanding oil powered ships because they worried too much about range. They could not shake the limitations of coal-fired ships from their minds. They were constantly refueling. Around 1900 the Navy built enormous complex colliers with banks of cranes to refuel other ships at sea. I do not know if they worked while the ships were underway, like oil-refueling navy tankers do. Looking at a photograph of one you can see what a headache coal must have been. Here is a picture of one, that was later converted into the aircraft carrier Langley: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/images/jupiter.jpg - Jed
