Plug-in Cars Coming in Two Years

Although GM is planning to come out with an electric car/hybrid, too many consumers remember how that U.S. automaker stabbed its customers in the back several years ago. Rent the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? for more on this.

Meanwhite, Toyota, currently the world’s largest producer of hybrid vehicles by far thanks to the success of its Prius, announced that it expects to have a commercially viable plug-in hybrid available to consumers as early as 2010 and is now testing prototype versions of plug-in hybrids at two California universities.

Plug-in cars plug into a regular electric outlet to enable the vehicle to operate solely on its electric motor for ranges of 40-50 miles or more on a single charge. This has profound implications for commuters who need only drive short distances to and from work every day and who may be able to do so solely on electric power. The gasoline engine then becomes the supplemental one for when the car needs to travel farther than the electric engine can take it.