At present, the emerging candidates for renewable, lower-carbon vehicle fuels center on "synthetic e-fuels," which are direct replacements for gasoline and diesel, on biodiesel, and on low-carbon gasoline formulations. The diesel versions are, of course, more important in Europe (and to a lesser degree Asia) than North America, since diesel passenger vehicles are less popular in the US and Canada. Next season's new regulations in Formula 1 call for renewable fuels (and F1 cars are hybrids); it'll be interesting to see how they work.

I wholeheartedly agree that the HUGE barrier to greater levels of EV adoption (aside from marketplace resistance) is the inadequate electrical infrastructure throughout most of the country. Of course, infrastructural neglect has become almost an American tradition, and it annoys me no end. Weren't we once a nation that looked to the future...?

As I mentioned in my previous post, a lot of the issues associated with lithium ion batteries can be eliminated by moving to aluminum ion battery tech. This isn't so very far from commercial reality. This looks to be the tech breakthrough that changes the game completely...but there's still some "wait and see" involved.

The possibility of nuclear power generation facilities becoming targets in war is very real...and completely chilling. There's a limited number of nations that can exercise that option presently, but some of those are nations I have little trust in. Even given their fit-throwing, irrational response to even the mildest of opposition to their claims on Taiwan, I don't see China as resorting to that if/when their inevitable attempt to annex the island by military force begins. China is extremely vulnerable to counterattack in kind. Any strike on a nuclear facility will trigger a response targeting the Three Gorges Dam that might literally darken the sky with incoming missiles. The even bigger under-construction project at Yarlung Tsangpo would almost certainly be included. But nations like North Korea? Iran? The US? (kidding, sort of, on that last one!)