Someone asked me what it would cost to operate an electric powered vehicle. I'm going to assume that the interest is in a vehicle similar in size to a family car, not a motorized rickshaw type vehicle. I assume that the Otto cycle powered car gets 20 miles/gallon, which is an energy use of about 1.66 kw-hr/mile. This auto may have an overall efficiency of 20%. If gasoline cost $3.50 then it costs $0.175/mile to operate. If this vehicle is turned into an electric car, assuming a charge-discharge efficiency of 80%, it takes 0.41 kw-hr/mile to operate. (This ignores the regeneration occurring during braking of the battery powered vehicle, the impact of which varies a lot between highway and city driving.) At the ridiculously high electricity cost 0f 14.9 cents/kw-hr in the DFW area, the cost would be $0.061/mile. At the average cost of electricity in the US of 8.9 cents/kw-hr, the operating cost would be $0.0365/mile. I don't know how the life of the battery stacks up against the life of an Otto cycle engine. A Li-ion battery would probably be good for 5000 cycles which is probably the life of the car. Electric cars would be attractive for city driving.