I have come to the conclusion that research into electric cars is not very imaginative. For me, there should be three streams of work...
1. Power storage and delivery, i.e. batteries, capacitors, fuel cells, hybrids of these
2. Motive power, i.e. the future of motors
3. Car design, i.e. stop thinking about how to fit batteries and motors into existing car shapes designed for engines up front, fuel tanks underneath and drive shafts up the middle. Think imaginatively about how new technology could encourage different designs, and not just bland cubes on wheels.
Dyson is seen as some kind of design guru but he has basically reused age-old centrifuge designs to create cleaners which are filthy to empty and hand driers which blow contaminated air drawn from the public toilets onto your hands at high speeds. I wonder how inventive their car designs will be.