And spinning the turbines create drag. Might as well build a perpetual motion engine. The Universe does not give free lunches, let alone beer. If that works, let us use it on a sail boat. Put a scoop to collect the wind and route it to the sails.
Range is debatable, the conditions has to allow the vehicle to use every bit of the energy wisely and efficient. What about, stopping in traffic? To accelerate takes huge amounts of energy, but you can recover a mere fraction with regeneration. Would you be willing to stand still in traffic in the middle of the summer, or winter or down pour with no AC (60s and 70s flashbacks)? To make it aerodynamic, the windows are pretty much worthless when moving. You get this loud slapping noise from turbulence. What about night time, lights to see, vehicle position lights.
Factor all that on top of what we have now and you see is not easy.
My son's BMW 335i has the Start / Stop feature. Weird at first when you drive. That feature really works. A 6 cly with Twin Power Turbo can get 31 MPG (7.56 L/100K) with about 350 HP, very impressive. However, only works when cabin temps are at the preset level. If is too cold or hot inside, the engine continues to run.
On Solar Cells...
The current technology still too crude to even be useful. They start to degrade as soon they are exposed to the sun; UV rays are brutal. The most decent panels to make it close to cost effective are probably around 20% efficient, not good enough, the best ones, at about 30ish% and cost prohibited. Another consideration, shape. Try to design body panels with the right contour with solar panels and be exposed to the sun with the maximum amount of area. Installing flat panels, is not only ugly as heck, is bad for aerodynamics, adds weight; drag cost money and power. On top of that is maintenance, dirt accumulates on the panel; you get the point.
Calaber is right, using the existent Fuel Station infrastructure is a sound idea. However, for how long you are willing to wait for a recharge? Hydrogen is some that is difficult to handle and contain. We know the dangers of LPG, apply that to Hydrogen in cryogenic state. Beside, Hydrogen main source is Natural Gas and many other products. Extracting Hydrogen from air is cost prohibited (air is roughly 75% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen). Extracting from water, too many impurities to weed out before extracting it and in large quantities to keep up with demand. The energy used to extract is much higher; not even break even.
I think fuel cell is the way to go. It has all the conveniences of gasoline handling that we all know and fast turn around. The fuel cell needs to work with some form of liquid. I am suggesting a non-pollutant liquid, some sort of carrier, some that transport the fuel. Then, the cell, separates the part that will be used for electricity, the rest drained. One advantage of combustion engine is, a full tank or a cup of fuel has the same amount of kick. Not only that, weight is lost due to fuel depletion. A battery weights practically the same, fully charged or not. Also behave like tank of compressed air (if you want to visualize it), crack the valve open for a bit, the pressure left is not the same as before. On petrol, the engine has the same power regardless of how much fuel is left in the tank; electric motors fizzle out when the battery is depleting. That comes another problem, extract more EMF out of the battery it will overheat it due to internal resistance. I bet you do not want to ride on a car, with a battery set that can go Supernova one of these days, do you?
