Who Will Kill The Electric Car This Time?
In today's NYTimes, a major car company promises affordable cars you can plug in, and soon.

The Nissan Motor Company plans to sell an electric car in the United States and Japan by 2010, raising the stakes in the race to develop environmentally friendly vehicles.

The commitment — expected to be announced Tuesday by Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn — will be the first by a major automaker to bring a zero-emission vehicle to the American market. Nissan also expects to sell a lineup of electric vehicles globally by 2012.

I would normally file this under I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it, but it makes so much sense I don't really understand what's taking so long. Drug companies fall all over themselves rushing to advance delivery systems and fill needs (even if they have to create the need first), but car companies have seemed unmovable on a technology that seems basically available and would be in high demand, I would think. Has an industry ever been so slow in advancing its product's efficiency?

And if this happens - or when it does - credit where credit is due: Israel stepped out and has prepared itself to be the first mass adopter of electric car technology, devoting resources to infrastructure that will be ready for it. Nissan's partnership with Renault to bring plug-in cars to Israel just may be the springboard the rest of the world needs.

One of these days we are going to look back and wonder what the hell took us so long.