General Motors Corporation says it will do the “heavy lifting” to help achieve the grand goal set by United States President Barack Obama of having 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the US roads by 2015.  Major US-based makers of automobiles, including General Motors, have been planning an array of electric-drive vehicles aimed at meeting higher fuel-economy standards and also an expected rise in the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Chevy Volt

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Toyota says it will launch as many as 10 new hybrid gas-electric models within the next four years IF the economic downturn doesn’t prevent them and IF there is renewed consumer demand.

When gas was $4+ gallon (US) consumers didn’t mind paying an extra $3-5,000. They seem to mind now that gas is half that price.

Toyota has a fleet of 500 plug-in Priuses that it will unleash next year. A new redesigned Prius and Lexus luxury sedan will be unveiled in Detroit.

Toyota will also unveil a concept car – a battery-electric vehicle for city use that the company hopes to put into production by 2012. Sales were down by half in December.

How soon we forget! Save gas when it is expensive. Gulp it down when it is not. Now is the time to save on gas, BEFORE the next oil crisis comes.

Edmunds.com, an online car research service, estimates that, as a result of the drop in gas prices, a Prius owner must now wait more than eight years to recoup the extra cost of the vehicle in fuel savings, compared with 3.5 years when the gas price climbed above $4 a gallon last spring.

Meanwhile, Honda’s “Prius-Fighter” the Insight Hybrid is coming, GM’s Volt is on its way – sometime in late 2010, while Cadillac has the Converj which is expected in 2012. I wonder if that will turn out to be true, or not …

Source: Nikkei (sub req)

The current economic recession that is taking over the planet could see the story of the electric car turn from a fairytale comeback into a haunting curse, as car makers and automobile industry is experiencing its worst period ever in 25 years. With companies like GM standing in queue for a bailout, it seems that the green cars line-up that is being lead by the Volt might roll back from their scheduled deadline in 2010.

GM's 2011 Chevrolet Volt production show car

It was in the beginning of last century that fossil fuel put the electric car out of business and into museums and it seems that almost exactly 100 years down the line the revival will be killed by economic downfall.

The curse of the electric car seems to be haunting the greener vehicle as marquee projects such as GM’s Volt could be put on hold if the congress decides not to bail the automobile industry out of the present cash crisis. GM has put everything behind the Volt and so have many other companies with their smaller electric cars scheduled to hit the roads in next few years.

While some see the crisis as a potential plague for electric cars, others believe that this would force automobile industry to quickly and completely go green. In fact, some experts claim that the current situation would have never cropped up if car makers switched to greener alternatives 10 years earlier, when the first signs in that direction were clearly out on view.

Irrespective of Congress’ decision and the status of cars like Volt, one hopes that this time around, the electric cars are here to stay as the ailing planet desperately needs them. Meanwhile, should we just let Detroit go down?

Source: Reuters