Electric Cars Picking Up Speed

The all-electric, plug-in Nissan Leaf and its US rival, the Chevy Volt, have had a lot of positive publicity during the past year. Recent spikes in gas prices have only intensified interest in cars that run on anything other than gas.

USA Today, reporting on the "electric cars war," concluded that sales of the Leaf and the Volt are nearly tied. Of course, Nissan and Chevy are busy promoting their electric advantages and responding to each other's ad claims.

One big question mark is how quickly the infrastructure will develop to accommodate plug-in cars. What's a buyer to do if he or she drives somewhere but can't recharge for the return trip? Go to Qwest Field in Seattle, for instance, and you can recharge. If you commute to Google in a plug-in car, you're also in luck.

Yet Business Week observes that early Leaf buyers aren't receiving their vehicles on time--and Nissan is canceling some orders, even though a number of these buyers want to follow through. Delays in Leaf production are partly to blame, but competing vehicles such as the Volt may also be nicking customers from the waiting list. Will Nissan achieve its long-term goal of having electric cars such as the Leaf account for 10% of global sales by the end of this decade?