Well, the initial cost for these things will be higher. Hopefully they'll catch on and the price will drop as production ramps up. I think that's marginally happened with the hybrids, tho they still seem to be mostly aimed at the monied class, who can shell out the 25 grand for a basic Prius.

I think about the irony of it all... the only people who can really afford cheap, clean energy now are people who have surplus dough. I know a woman who moved to a modest house near here and installed a 30,000 dollar solar array in the back yard. So it provides all her power, but she'll be dead before she sees a full return on her investment. Plus, she's got the property with a sufficiently unimpeded south-facing area to support solar, something I ain't got, for example.

However, she'd be a perfect candidate for a Volt, as she's already got the clean power source.