Yes, they are very quiet. It has been suggested that some form of
noise be generated to warn pedestrians as at present they use their
ears more than they realise. One suggestion was for the sound of the
frequency standard station WWV ! What a hoot !
At the third stoke;
It will be 1400 UTC
Beep Beep Beep.

Agnostic, they are coming this time, if the RTA does not find an
excuse to ban them.
Item 4. of your post should have been;
If petrol reaches $5-00 a litre.

I would certainly buy one such as the Leaf as the range is claimed
to be 160Km. Well within 98% of my trips.

Bazz: Item 4 of my post should have read "When petrol reaches $5/litre" It will.

Strange how peoples perceptions change. 12 months ago I read an article on electric cars and which concluded that they would be on our roads within 5 years. Comments at the time mostly ran along the lines that it was science fiction or that the author did not know what he was writing about.

Now we are talking about Chinese electric cars being driven on our roads within the next 12 months and technology being able to produce batteries holding a charge to propel a car 400 km between recharges.

Even better news is that all the major car manufacturers are scrambling to catch up with the Chinese and produce electric vehicles. The more competition, the cheaper the vehicles - and they should be cheaper given that they do not need radiators, gear boxes, exhaust pipes and a bulky fossil fuelled engine is replaced by one or two lighter electric motors.

Mikk: The progress made by Honda in the application of fuel cell technology to replace the fossil fuelled engine is impressive and more advanced than I thought - but its used depends on vehicles selling at a competitive price.

Home production of hydrogen is achieved by hydrolosis (breaking up water, H2O, into its components) by using electricity produced from solar energy using photovoltaic cells.

Agnostic;
I think the problems with the
Electricity->Hydrogen->fuel cell->electric motor cycle is that it is
much less efficient than the
Electricity->battery->electric motor cycle before the life time of
the fuel cell is even considered.
The cost would have to be a lot cheaper also.
To set up service stations for hydrogen would probably cost more than
the financial system can provide at present and for the foreseeable
future. It can be done for busses which have a depot to which they
can return for a fill.
Frankly I think there will be too many problems with hydrogen.
Special parking areas are required and they may even be banned by the
fire brigade from being parked in underground car parks.
I would not be happy living in a block of units with a significant
number of hydrogen cars in the underground parking area.
In any case it is not a proposition until the fuel cell life time
is fixed.
From the little I have seen I think the Nissan Leaf is the most attractive possibility so far.
They say it does 160KM on a charge.
As in everything it will depend on cost.
Further down the track I would expect to see a motor on each wheel
hub, giving four wheel drive.
Certainly the service costs will be a lot less.
I wonder how many motor mechanics will get electrocuted before they
get used to working on them.
Perhaps work should be restricted to licenced electricians.