WE're not quite there yet on 'lectric cars. It looks like battery prices need to drop a lot - 5X or so. But that could happen, tho not overnight. Read on, courtesy of the Economist.
GETTING the equivalent of 106 mpg (2.2 litres/100km), the Nissan Leaf electric car would seem a motoring skinflint’s dream come true. Even an advanced plug-in hybrid like the Chevrolet Volt (Opel/Vauxhall Ampera in Europe), with an energy consumption equivalent to 61mpg, sounds pretty miserly, too. Yet, for all their frugality, neither has been selling particularly well, despite the present sky-high price of petrol (see “Priced off the road”, July 15th 2011).