Leas the batteries

During the last NATO meeting, Obama made some advertising for a new car, produced by GM and Opel; it will be named GM Volt in the US and curiously Opel Ampera in Europe.
The concept behind the car is quite interesting and develops further the classic electrical / hybrid vehicles: instead of having only an electrical motor or to load the batteries while breaking, the Volt/Ampera has a pure plug systems to cover the typical daily drives (about 80Km); you can load it at home with the usual AC plug and drive at work with a very silent electrical motor. When you approach the 80 Km haul, a normal gasoline based engine ignites and reloads the batteries; in case of very long drives, it can also support the electrical motor and transmit power to the wheels.
No doubt that such a concept has a better efficiency and that the electrical energy needed on the plug is absolutely more efficient than a gasoline engine. The point will be, as by all the battery based devices (laptops, mobile phones and so on), the usage curves of the batteries after couple of year; which should force the automotive industry to leas that part of the car, so that the user will not be afraid to have after 3 years a car capable to drive only 30-40Km with a load.