the fact that there are prototypes in the lab doesn't begin to address the costs of (a) building factories to mass-produce units (b) developing a supply pipeline for manufacture on such a scale (you're essentially talking about creating an entire new industry from the ground up, and then claiming it'll only cost 100M pounds or so - one factory alone would cost more than that)(c) 1000 units doesn't even address the needs of a small village, much less an entire country the size of Britain, much less one the size of the US.
But even using *your* numbers . . .
Cost: 1M lbs/unit
Necessary units: (assuming one unit for a family of 4; completely disregarding industrial needs) = UK pop (60M -source:http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108078.html)/4 or around 15M
1M x 15M = 15 *trillion* pounds. This is 15x larger than the US spent on the military buildup at its height under Reagan (I'm going from memory here; the buildup could have been more but I don't think it would be significant to the end result) AND this is only for Britain, AND completely disregards the needs of industry and transportation. Even if you assume the cost per unit drops from $1M to $1K/unit (a decrease of 99%; again hardly realistic) it's still $15B . . . which means that by your numbers the cost would be 6x greater than the UK's war expenditure. I assume the same basic percentage would hold true for creating such an industry in the US. And again the timetable for such an effort precludes it being a solution to the current predicament.
The truth is that we *are* on the road to alternate fuel sources; Toyota and Honda have gas/elec hybrids available for sale to the general public, and they're comparably priced w/ conventional vehicles, and don't require excessive charging time etc. Honda has delivered a test shipment of hydrogen fuel cell cars to the City of LA (http://hondacorporate.com/?onload=fcx). If those work out, we could *really* have something. As more people realize there are viable alternatives to petroleum fueled vehicles, more money will flow into the alternate fuels mkt, which in turn will generate more corporate R&D, which will bring the costs down and production runs up, while driving the demand for gasoline and gas vehicles down.
Ironically, the war will *accelerate* this process, at least here in the US, because of skyrocketing gas prices. The same thing happened in the 70s; people stopped buying huge gas guzzling luxury cars and moved to smaller, more economical vehicles. I'm looking at a Toyota Prius for exactly that reason; I drive many miles (have to for my job) and would like to save money. I've kept an eye on electric, natural gas and other vehicles for a long time because I believe in getting off the petroleum nipple, but the earlier vehicles weren't practical (too small a driving range, too slow for freeway use, too long to recharge or fuel not readily avail, etc)
Long story short (too late!); these changes take time. We can all do our part by putting our $ where are beliefs are, but sitting back and saying 'the govt should/could snap their fingers and do this' isn't realistic.
*whew* . . . I've had way too much coffee today . . . this will be my last word on the subject . . . maybe ;-)
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