However, the key to the future of the car as anything other than a privilege of the rich (much like horse-drawn carriages were), has to be a drastic shedding of weight.

As Jake points out, lugging around a ton of scrap metal everywhere you go is completely nuts, we can not afford the energy for that. Get it down to 300kg for a small family car, and we're perhaps back in business.

Over recent decades, cars have only got bigger and heavier. Safety regulations are a major factor, and need to be rethunk. I suspect that the major car manufacturers may be unable to make the transition, and will crash and burn, to be replaced by new players.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}