Could we see the first electric cars by 2008?

According to an article in the San Jose-Mercury news, the first fully electric car to run on American roadways is now in the planning stages.

No major automaker currently sells a purely electric-powered car that can be used on public roadways in the United States.

Mitsubishi displayed an all-wheel-drive gasoline-electric hybrid car at the Detroit Auto Show in January, but the company does not currently sell a hybrid car.

In the early 90s, there was speculation that the first fully electric car available nationwide was expected to come from GM, as they had a clear advantage at one point as far as research and development.

Though there is some speculation that GM had ulterior motives for abandoning the project in 2002, their official reason, stated as insufficient demand, held water at the time from a profitability standpoint – gas prices were half what they are now. Now that more consumers believe that the has come for the electric car, and are stating that they would purchase one, it looks as if Missubishi will be the frontrunner in the entire industry.

Electric cars are not necessarily the savior of the energy question, according to a documentary that explores the issues behind converting to alternative energy sources, "Addicted to Oil". Early blogosphere reports show that consumer response to the news so far is positive.

The issue of electric cars raises many important questions. Will maintenance costs for cars run on electricity decline, or are ther other issues that could make the costs go up? Could maintenance frequency go down? What kinds of changes would have to be made on warranty coverage?

Some of these questions can be estimated from studies on hybrids, or the electric car community in California. Others we won’t know about until the sample of electric cars is large enough. For those, we’ll have to wait and see.