The whole battery-thing worries me since I've been driving when the alternator died and the car stopped going when it had drained the battery. It was not of the fun, and I can't imagine how you'd refuel a battery-powered car, and as someone who uses about 4 things with rechargable batteries everyday, I know how quickly they can deplete and how long they can take to recharge. Though, if we could find a way to use the motion of the car to recharge the battery, that would be cool.
I know we need to make the car go, it just seems that there's got to be more than one way. I vote magnets that get started moving by a battery, though I don't know if they'd generate enough power.
Of course, if someone makes that handy-dandy transporter I was talking about, the internal combustion engine kinda looses its relevance.