Joel Makower on the Huffington
lists the companies working on electric automobile technology in advance of the upcoming documentary (which looks kickass)
Who Killed the Electric Car?.
The New Prius
Here's what hybridcars.com (click) says about plug in-electrics:
Someday, the larger battery packs used in plug-in hybrids could juggle power back and forth from the car to your household current. If adopted on a widespread basis, a fleet of plug-in (a.k.a. "gridable") hybrids could offer what are called "regulatory services" (keeping voltages steady, etc.) to a modernized electric power grid. It is estimated that what's called "V2G" could benefit individual car owners by as much as $2,000 to $3,000 per year for the use of their energy storage capacity -- offsetting their purchase and operating costs.
Joel Makower interestingly makes the demand for Electric sound snobby, even though it's just following the basic explanations of capitalist economics:
At least two car makers are viewing electric cars as a high-end niche market -- something the Hollywood or well-heeled Silicon Valley set will want to embrace simply for the cool factor. After all, now that "everyone" has a Prius, what's the Next Green Thing?
Incidentally, Organic produce has been gradually decreasing in price as it's garnished a mainstream market, recently the demand has boomed. Maybe, ironically, the market will soon yield the dominance of the electric car? It sounds like meddling tycoons are the reason it hasn't already.