Automakers Charged Up over EVs ... Again

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Washington DC August 12, 2009; The AIADA newsletter reported that when Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn drove onto the stage in a 2010 Leaf sedan at the automaker's new Yokohama headquarters earlier this month, there was plenty of hoopla — but none of the usual roar one would expect to hear from a car's internal combustion engine.

That's because Leaf is the Japanese automaker's eagerly-awaited electric vehicle, "a real breakthrough" in the words of the Brazilian-born executive. That might be taken as hype, except that most of Nissan's competitors are racing to put similar products on the road.

According to MSNBC, President Barack Obama has committed $2.4 billion in federal funds aimed at helping the U.S. leapfrog its European and Asian rivals in the race to develop competitive electric vehicles.

After a century of vain attempts, the race towards "electrification" is back on and it's heating up among automakers large and small.

Despite its minuscule size and relatively high mileage, even Smart, a division of Daimler AG, and sibling to Mercedes-Benz, is developing a battery-powered version of its fortwo coupe. It has already begun a series of pilot programs, around the world, to test its Smart Electric Drive model.