Experts say electric cars are on the way

Automakers, biofuel companies and battery makers are rushing to bring two new technologies to the nation’s auto fleet: plug-in electric hybrids and cellulosic ethanol.

At the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars here Friday, automakers and start-up officials said the future is bright for both technologies though they face hurdles to widespread adoption.
“The next five years is the engineering (research and development) and the next five years is the rapid scale-up for both plug-ins and cellulosic ethanol,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research.

“Nobody is going invest huge amounts of money until you feel you have reasonably optimum configuration, whether it’s batteries or cellulosic fuels.”

Sandy Stojkovski, director of Total Vehicle Fuel Economy at Ricardo Inc., said there is no doubt that electric vehicles are on the way.

“With CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards and government stimulus money, the VHS versus Beta wars that might be around — is it diesel, is it gas, is it electrification? — they’re over,” she said. “Electrification of the vehicle is coming.”

Detroit News