I would love to have diesels as well, but our friends in Washington seem determined to kill them. I agree that hybrids are most likely a stop gap until something better comes along, but they are pretty good at their intended use. I don't think we will be getting rid of conventional cars and engines anytime soon but will see various hybrid model to help efficience and emissions.
As far as the mining/heavy metal problems that argument rarely comes up because the rules we are all trying to comply with are set by our gov't which seems to have little concern for pollution as long as it's someone else's which is why we get most of the battery parts from "over there"
