While a coal power station is 90% efficent the distribution and storage is not
losses in:
-Transporting from powerstation to your house (quite a bit)
-Storage into batteries (lots and lots of wastage here)
The distribution network would need a massive upgrade to feed this sort of stuff on a large scale.
You would be better off burning the coal in the car. As a external combustion engine. Burns cleaner and use any combustable fuel (gas, liquid, solid, etc). regenerative braking can also be used to build up pressure. As well as compressed air running.
Accessories could be run off a turbine, so things like alternator, power steering, aircon, etc could all be run extremely efficently. No idle is needed so added efficency. BMW is looking into this, using waste heat from the IC engine to power accessories.
Steam powered cars predate internal combustion and electric cars. In the early 1900's a stanley steamer clocked over 200 kmph on daytona beach a record that still stands for steam, and took several decades for ic engined cars to catch.
Steam powered trains produced well over 2000 hp, and could spin up ~8 linked ~180cm high steel wheels weighing over 500kg each with ease. They could also travel at over 200 kmph with passenger cars back in the 1930's with some timetables requiring average speeds over 160 kmph. Diesel trains have only fairly recently began to match these speeds.
Steam power has a power delivery like few else. "Pulls like a steam train" is a phrase used to describe massive torque at idle that just doesn't quit. Piston steam engines also have a lot of charater with huffying and puffing.. They are also a lot smoother than IC engines, but more emotive than electric engines.
My dream is to make a modern steam powered car. Possibly a combination of tripple expansion and steam turbine for maxium efficency. With computer controlled combustion, predictive power production, quick heating micro boiliers.
There was actually a steam powered ford falcon made in the 60's.
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