In the mid 1990s about 1,100 electric concept cars were leased to the public by General Motors. Markets included Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Tucson, Phoenix and a few even got loose in Georgia. Known as the EV1, it was the first all electric car to top a thousand production units for consumer testing.

Initially equipped with lead-acid batteries, the first group could muster 55-75 miles on an electric charge delivered through a large gas pump looking charging station. The second wave used Panasonic batteries and could go 75-100 miles on a full charge and the last batch with NIMH batteries could go 75-150 miles except in Phoenix where it was too hot for the new battery pack.

The car’s main claim to fame actually turned out to be its low drag coefficient (the lowest of any production auto ever made) and specially developed extremely low resistance Michelin tires which are now coming to market for gas powered cars.

As for the electric car concept, it was a complete failure in GM’s view for a number of reasons.

The electronics filled the car and left room for only two seats. Between the cramped space and the limited range, the car never fit the "take a family of four to grandma’s house 100 miles away and back" mold that Detroit executives considered necessary for a car the American public would buy.

And then there was a small matter of the price. The EV1 cost $80,000 to make and GM marketed the car at a price range of $33,995 to $43,995 — but you couldn’t buy it. You could only lease it with no right to purchase at the end of the lease. Any production vehicle that can be owned must also come with a legally required promise from the automaker that parts, service, etc will be around for a minimum of 15 years. GM made sure no ownership/service legacy could be made leading many to accuse GM of killing the electric car.

In hindsight GM now admits they erred in not sticking with the EV1 if for no other reason than the advances it would have given them in the hybrid market today.

But one thing is clear, electric cars will never offer an alternative to fossil fuel vehicles until someone can get batteries to weigh less, cost less and produce more. People have been working on those problems for more than a 100 years now with no breakthroughs in sight.

Even in France, where fiction is often accepted as fact, retiring French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s administration is hiding a 129-page report on efficient, cleaner cars. The report concludes that hybrids and traditional fueled vehicles, not electric cars, hold out the most hope for the future. New technology is expected to make gas/diesel vehicles at least 50 percent more efficient than today and Hybrid technology is equally promising.

Detroit is already most of the way there. www.freep.com, the website of the Detroit Free Press recently highlighted a bevy of new Ford, Chrysler and GM 2010 products. They were all bigger than a matchbox and averaged 40 mpg or more. If Congress stays out of the automakers way, the future looks very good.

Battery powered Hybrid vehicles have a huge downside in that the battery pack normally needs replacing about halfway through the life of the car. That’s usually about $5,000 in added expense most people don’t expect a few years down the road.

But Hybrids have a potentially huge upside for folks around here. Most of them can output about 3 kWh of electricity when hooked to an inverter in your house. That means that you could use your Hybrid car as a whole house generator to run your entire homestead except for the central air after a hurricane.

The batteries power the inverter for your house and the car’s gas engine cycles on when needed. Drive it to a gas station every other day or so and you can weather a prolonged power outage with ease.