Ryan: Supercapacitors did come a long way, but they're still far from being a suitable replacement for a car battery.
Let me put it in numbers: the OP stated a 12 x 12V, 80Ah battery pack would give him a 40 Km (about...25 miles??) range. One Farad= 1Ampere-second/1Volt. 1 Ampere-hour=3600 Amp-second.
So, a battery that's 12V, 80 Ah, is
80 x 3600
------------- =24000 Farad
12
That means that, if you want a, let's say, 200 Km range, you will need 12 x 120000 F capacitors. That's still way too big, way too heavy. And a 120 mile range is still not that impressive (although it'd be much better than the current numbers)
But the biggest disadvantage is that capacitors, unlike batteries, have a linear voltage to energy curve. That means that, while a car battery will have almost 13V while fully charged, and about 10V+ when fully drained, a capacitor will have the same (let's say) voltage when fully charged, but as it's being drained, the voltage between its electrodes will drop linearly, so at half charge it will have about 6V, and 0V when fully drained.
Ethand: wow, that's expensive!
Of course, my numbers are that of my city, but I didn't think there'd be such a difference...
I've had it both ways. On carbureted cars, especially if the shop that installs the kit doesn't do the job properly (if they don't rejet the carb, or if they don't connect the coolant lines to the regulator), you can see a fairly noticeable power loss. I've driven a few cars like that (mostly French, Renault 12s and Peugeot 504s) But on EFI engines, and if the guys at the shop flash the ECU properly, I actually rode one car (Renault 19) that was more powerful on CNG than on gas. I guess it depends a lot on the shop...
Yeah, the tank takes about half the trunk. But if you go electric, the batteries would take much more than that.
The weight of the batteries was just one example. There are many more issues.
For example, volume, and time. Charging a battery pack in 3 minutes is a nice dream, but it's just that: a dream. Google the GE Wattstation. It charges a 24 KWh battery pack in 4-8Hrs. And what they don't tell you is that, at least if you're using lead acid batteries, fast charging them will kill them fairly fast. But even at that rate, if you had a commercial "electric station" you'd need a big warehouse, and a ton of money on batteries to keep charged, to swap for the customer's packs.
And then there's another issue: lifespan. How would you feel if you just bought a brand new electric car, and when you went to recharge it, your brand spanking new pack was swapped by an old pack that dies on you an hour later? And then, who would pay for the packs when they die?
I agree with you that over time, I'm confident those problems will be solved. I've never said electric cars will never be an option. I said TODAY they're not.
I still hope they will become a viable alternative within my lifetime...