Re: Applefying the car
A ding to a wing can cost up to $6000 US to repair. A ding to a wing and a door and the insurance companies may well declare the $25K car a right-off. Again not good for sustainability.
I'm guessing they're talking about replacing the chassis with batteries, not the outside panels. In a similar way that many racing cars started using the engine block as a structural compenent of the whole car in the late 60s / early 70s. If I recall correctly it was Lotus that did it first in F1.
So I imagine you'd have a chassis and floorpan that were hollow and contained battery cells - possibly including large structural bits like the pillars. Then hung off these you'd have the crumple-zones, doors and other panels.
Making the outer panels out of battery makes no sense, as these are currently very thin anyway - but often the chassis made of hollow metal tube, so why not fill it with stuff?
Obviously it's going to limit the life of the car - but if they're conservative with the battery management and have spare cells to cover for putting knackered ones offline - you should be able to get a decent lifetime out of the car.