“Think plans to sell the car but lease the battery as a way to overcome one of the biggest conundrums of electric cars. The battery is by far the most expensive component of the City, which will list for about $34,000 in Norway. Take the battery out of the equation, and Willums says he can sell the car for about $15,000 to $17,000 in the United States, with a “mobility fee” of $100 to $200 a month that might also include services like insurance and wireless Internet access.” … “Capricorn Investment Group, a Palo Alto private equity firm that has invested in both Think and Tesla, intends to launch a battery-leasing company to jump-start that market. “You have a natural way to create a total maintenance package,” says Capricorn co-founder and partner Ion Yadigaroglu. “You’re not going to pay the gas station; you’ll pay us a monthly fee to use a battery that our company owns, which can be replaced in later years.” ”

Of course, since you don’t already own a car, this purchase would almost certainly result in a net gain in emissions.

I don’t know how many horsepower that ends up being, but I imagine it’s many times less than a normal car engine. Maybe even small enough to be portable. Then again, why pull it out of the car? Just plug stuff into your car, and then you can use the batteries, too, when you need things to be quiet