What's wrong with an electric car? Well, batteries that cost $10 000, and have to be replaced every 2 years

The batteries alone in some alternative-fuel vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, a next-generation plug-in hybrid, are reportedly estimated to cost upwards of $10,000. Leasing the batteries, as Norway-based Think Global does with its electric vehicles, is one way electric-car makers try to keep costs down. - Yahoo

clipped from autos.yahoo.com "The goal of the electric vehicle is to allow people who drive to work, the vast majority of people who drive to work, to get there and back on one charge," says Darryll Harrison, a Nissan spokesperson. "We're definitely confident that the EV you'll see in 2010 will be an EV that will allow you to do that." Nissan did not disclose how far it expects the new electric vehicle will go on a single charge. Chevrolet is aiming for a 40-mile electric-only range for its Volt plug-in hybrid. But the Volt will have a small combustion engine on board that will act as a generator to replenish the batteries and extend the driving range. "The holy grail continues to be the battery technology," said John Viera, Ford's sustainable business strategies director at a recent sustainability forum in New York. "That's the thing that is making electric vehicles cost-prohibitive." "That's going to be the issue," Spinella says. "Do you want to add another $100 or $200 a month to rent these batteries?"