Of course, there's no discussion of price. A pure EV circa 2010 will have an interesting price point if gas is costing $4.00 per gallon (already true in some places). The other factor is the price of power at that point (8 to 15 cents per KWH?). This is likely to change, perhaps severely. American consumers are getting used to reduced purchasing power, including in particular how often and far they drive. GM may be able to bundle some kind of 'insurance' that basically makes a bet on energy costs over the life of the car. Either that, or consumers should buy (or sell) certificates based on their relative impact in the energy markets.

Want to see a neat idea? zeropollutionmotors.us Runs primarily on compressed air. 106 MPG! Seats 6. Available in US in 2010 at estimated $18K. For now, we're happy with our 60 MPG (real data) Prius.

Ok, here's an idea: Solar panels only deliver power when the sun is shining. In some ( not all ) states, you can sell the power back to the electricity utility. This is a solution to the problem of "how do you store the energy from solar panels". However, there is the efficiency loss in converting to AC then the poor payback from the utility company, then the efficiency loss in charging your plug-in vehicle. Plus, the electric utility has to handle the variable ( minute by minute ) supply from solar, which is not an issue if the percentage of solar is infinitessimal, but will be an issue if it became a significant percentage of power generation during the day. An alternative solution which might make both plug-in electric vehicls AND solar panels more appealing is have the plug-in vehicle be capable of recharging off solar panels. Manging the variable power from the panels could be handled by the charging system for the car. Shove a few solar panels on top of the garage/carport and voila: lower transport costs. Now, if I could just get the company to put charging station car-ports in the parking lot...

All I can say from the point of someone ,who spent most of his life with electric and electronic devices is this: WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE!!!! Can anyone ever think that oil prices are just a financial TERRORISM!!!WE HAVE to be smart and go electric and with todays progress in batteries....just think for one gallon of gasoline you can buy a cell phone battery (wholesale),which can be RECHARGED!!!!!!!Oil lobby is very,very strong , but we need to change it.As far as energy cost , I think that it will not go up severly , unless GREED comes into play.After all evening and night(when the cars shold be charged) have surplus energy , so all electric energy companies will be happy....I am for a change.Cars started as electric and they should come back to that nice quiet and efficient form of energy.That's my opinion.