With the blitz of EV concepts and announcements coming out daily, you’d think the Internal Combustion motor was a thing of the past and whole world is about to buy electric car. What does the “Cash for Clunker” program mean for electric vehicles, EV and hybrids, HEV? At this point, the Cash for Clunker program has been good to fuel economic cars, mostly compacts and hybrids. As far as electric cars go (EV) there are no numbers yet showing us how many guzzlers have been traded in for a pure electric drive.

After $1 billion already spent getting 250,000 felonious vehicles off our roads and another $2 billion available to get more of these cars to the shredder, it has certainly given a short-term boost for HEV sales. 

Bill Clinton suggested that the Cash for Clunkers program could serve as model to speed up the adoption of electric cars and mention that he thought the current Cash for Clunkers had set the bar for "fuel efficient vehicle" too low. Carmakers sold about 160,000 hybrids in July, just 2.8 per cent of total sales.

Other good news for the electric car industry Tesla Motors, the maker of high-end electric sports cars, turned a profit for the first time last month, the company announced. Despite the recession, the company shipped 109 of its Roadster cars, helping it to earn $1 million on revenue of $20 million.

The federal government will be providing $2.4 billion in federal grants to boost domestic production of electric cars. The money comes from the nearly $800-billion economic stimulus bill the government passed earlier this year.

Electric cars are a big part of Obama’s push to get the auto industry going again. He seems to believe that by building a new technology, the U.S. auto industry might be able to start competing with Japan, Europe and Korea. We agree that the U.S. auto industry is doomed unless it gets greener and more innovative. Electric cars seem to be the wave of the future, and if American car companies can master that technology, we’re headed in the right direction.

Did you know Nissan is mass producing an electric car for sale in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. next year?

Yes, the Nissan Leaf is zero emission electric vehicle that is a five seater, travels 100 miles on a charge, and can go up to 90 mile per hour.

The number 230 signifies the Chevrolet Volt plug-in series hybrid has received an EPA estimated 230 city miles per gallon.

If this is true the only electric or plug-in car for us is the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. For the Volt, this number is based on combined electric only driving and charge sustaining mode with the gasoline generator running, although how much driving of each mode is still under wraps.

If that number sounds a little high to you, remember that for about the first 40 miles of driving on a full charge, the Volt uses no fuel.

GM now has bragging rights the first ever triple digit fuel economy rating. GM FastLane blog would now be used to get feedback on new designs candidly from customers. GM will be launching 25 new models (over the next two years) in its four remaining "core" brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC).

If you’ve read our May newsletter we reported about the electric car start-up, the Aptera. If you live in California, you can expect to see this car hitting the roads in “volume” by October of 2009.

Costing between $20-40K, depending on options the car can travel 100-120 Miles on one charge.

The cityZENN (Powered by EEStor) is not the prettiest car on the road but they report a 5 minute recharge time and a 250 mile range and priced under $30K.

The Th!nk City when it gets here will be the most affordable of all electric cars coming to the US. The Th!nk City reports it will be priced under $25K and travel 110 Miles on one charge.

The Tesla Model S promises to be a cheaper than the Tesla Roadster and room for a family will be priced around $60K and travel 240 Miles on one charge

Nissan has recently rewritten their overarching business plan to include a huge focus on Nissan Electric Car including releasing electric cars in the US by 2010 and have at least a range of 100 miles. Early reports say they’ll cost $22-25K and travel at least 100 miles on one charge.