One standout vehicle is the S model which is manufactured by Tesla. Mileage limitations won’t be a huge issue with the Tesla because it can offer a 200-300 range depending on your needs. The car can also sprint from 0 to 60 mph in just  5.6 seconds and will have a top speed of 120 mph. Moreover, it is said to have a quick charge feature that allows the car to charge in 45 minutes. The company also intends to release an electric sports Roadster.

2011 Nissan Leaf

We’d all like to reduce or eliminate our reliance on gasoline for a variety of reasons. In spite of great strides in emissions reductions, gasoline engines are still a major factor in air pollution. America’s appetite for oil from distant countries plays a large role in our economic and foreign relations policies. Switching to a form of energy that could be created in the United States could only improve the situation. These are laudable goals, and it’s good to see Americans thinking of long-term goals that will be good for the country as a whole. Many people are even willing to pay a little more than necessary to help achieve these goals, but there is a limit. Alternative forms of energy won’t really gather long-lasting momentum until they become cost effective for the majority of consumers.

We’ve seen the number of hybrids on the road increase, partially due to government incentives and spikes in gasoline prices. But the price of hybrids remains stubbornly higher than the price of comparable gasoline-only cars. For example the new 2010 Honda Civic Hybrid starts at $23,800, while the regular Honda Civic sedan starts at $15,655. The majority of consumers are only going to spend the extra $8,000 if they think they can recoup that cost. Is the better gas mileage going to help you save $8,000 over the life of your car?

The regular Civic gets about 29 mpg, which is pretty good. Compare that to 42 mpg for the Civic Hybrid. Using an average of 15,000 miles per year and a price of $3 per gallon, we see that the owner of a regular Honda Civic would pay about $1,551 in a year, compared to $1071 for the owner of the hybrid. That’s a savings of only $480 a year. It would take more than 16 years to break even. Most people don’t keep their cars nearly that long.

The culprit is the price of the batteries. Like most other car manufacturers, Honda uses a nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery in its hybrids. Price is not the only drawback to these batteries. They tend to lose capacity over time if they are not fully depleted before being recharged. As their capacity decreases, so does your gas mileage.

There’s a newer type of battery called the lithium-ion battery. It’s being used to power all-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt. They have a longer range and they hold a charge better than NiMH batteries. Unfortunately they also cost more. A price tag of about $10,000 makes it expensive to go green. The other cost that no one seems to mention in regards to all-electric vehicles is the cost of the electricity itself. Unlike hybrids, where the engine recharges the battery when you drive, batteries on all-electric cars are recharged by plugging in to an electrical outlet in your garage. The power company is going to charge you for the electricity.

Rechargeable car batteries are relatively new. As consumer interest in cleaner cars with low operational costs increases, so will research and development of these batteries. Until they get significantly less expensive, hybrid and electric vehicles will not be economically viable choices.

There are several reasons that electric cars have not already replaced the gas engine, and they’re challenging to overcome, especially in the short run. The first is range. How far away from home can you get, and will there be a place to recharge along the way? How much does the car cost to buy and operate? Does it have guts?

The new Nissan Leaf can drive up to 100 miles on a full charge. That’s a lot further than most people drive in a day. Drivers would plug it in at home to charge overnight. It only takes 4 to 8 hours to fully charge the battery. You can even program the car to charge late at night when demand for electricity is low. For those occasions when you need to go further than 100 miles in a day, Nissan is working with various cities to install quick charge stations that can charge the battery 80% in about half an hour. You could find these quick charge stations with the Leaf’s navigation system and charge your battery while you stop for a meal.

Before you invest in one, check for quick charge stations in places you might travel. Over time they’ll become more available. If coverage is weak in the places you drive, you might not want your new Leaf to be your only car. Still, in a two car family, an electric car would be an ideal day-to-day commuter car.

Because of the expense of an electric battery, electric cars haven’t historically been able to compete with gas engine cars on price. The Nissan Leaf hasn’t yet announced its retail price, but some experts anticipate a price of around $25,000, including the $7,500 tax rebate. That puts it within reach of the average family. The battery lasts about 5 years, so you’d have to figure in the price of a battery every five years against the gas savings.

What about power? We’ve all driven electric golf carts. Is that how an electric car feels?  Not this one. The Nissan Leaf accelerates like a V-6 gas powered car. Nissan’s U.S. tour will show these electric cars in Los Angeles in November. Mass production will start in the U.S. in 2012. The new 2011 Nissan Leaf will be available on a limited basis in selected U.S. cities in 2010. You should be able to buy one at many Southern California locations, since this is one of the areas where Nissan is working to offer quick charge stations. Soon you’ll be able to test drive a Nissan Leaf in Redlands, San Diego, or Los Angeles. Only time will tell if electric cars will become the norm, but the Leaf seems to have a good chance at breaking through that barrier.

The goal of the new design would be something that exudes environmentally conscious yet differentiates itself from the average “wedge-shaped silhouette” that is too often seen as a hybrid. Nissan wants the car to be so unique that when people see the car they realize it is an EV and not a hybrid.

Because EVs lack an outsized engine and gasoline tank, they open up new design possibilities.  The new EV is rumored to be comparable in size to the Cube or Versa.  Nissan has not released pictures of the car but is stating that the EV has no grille, a low hood (by lack of engine), a visible recharging plug in the front, and a profile that is flowing instead of triangular, but this spy shot is circulating the web.  The new EV from Nissan is scheduled to go on sale next year.

Nowadays, hybrid electrical vehicles are produced in lines for mass usage, particularly since more and more manufacturers have joined the green line. The reasons why many car producers jump on the green bandwagon are varied. Some producers are truly interested in preserving the natural resources, while others show a form of interested caring for the environment as a means of attracting more clients. Fuel consumtion can be significantly improved when using hybrid electric vehicles. First, they lower the amount of wasted energy during idle or low input (turning off the ICE); secondly, they collect waste energy (regenerative braking), and thirdly, they reduce the size and power of the ICE and inefficiencies generated by under-utilization.

The batteries that supply the electric motor get charged when you drive around, thus preventing the input necessities. Some hybrid electrical vehicles designs depend on the use of an electric generator that is spun by the hybrid engine and allows the recharging of the battery. Many of the existing hybrid electric vehicles’ capability is to reduce idle emissions by shutting down the internal combustion engine at idle status and restarting it when necessary (this is a start-stop system). The engines of the hybrid electric vehicles are smaller than those of non-hybrid petroleum fuel vehicles. These engines may work at various speeds, thus generating more efficiency.

The design of the hybrid car became a duty for manufacturers since the 90s when Honda and Toyota launched their first green models. Even since the beginnings of hybrid electric vehicles they have become widely available to the buyers. The future of hybrid electric vehicles is definitely bright, and this is the forecast by some automobile makers who consider hybrid electric vehicles a central segment of the automotive market of the future.

New 2009 Carsite has a great Yukon Hybrid SUV Article.  Awesome New Cars has a 50 MPG Prius Article.

What make this car different from the 2009 Toyota Prius Hybrid or the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid is that this car can runs on electricity only for up to 40 miles. This will satisfy the daily commute for the majority of Americans. For longer hauls; the Volt has a regular gas engine that will kick in and power the car.

Of course regenerative breaking is a feature that will recharge the batteries to a predetermined level. Once the batteries are charged, the electric engine will turn back on. As you can guess the Volt will have get outstanding MPG on long trips and will emit hardly any emissions. As is stands the Volt produces no emissions what so ever with the electric motor running! My only question is too little too late? I mean the big U.S. automakers have been in jeopardy as of late. Why not get a hybrid out to the public when we wanted it 5 years ago?