Are electric cars here to stay?

As prices of oil keep getting out of hand automobile manufacturers are now turning towards alternate energy sources.As long as oil remained the cheapest energy option people really were not drawn into these choices and the only reason why you did it was to save the planet.

But now it appears that paying that initial premium for these vehicles is money well spent.But what exactly is the vehicle of the future going to be powered by.The japanese led by honda,nissan and toyota feel that by 2015 hydrogen would be the best choice and the present hybrids are a stop gap arrangement till then.The biggest drawback for these hydrogen vehicles is the lack of filling stations but hey those oil filling station too did not come up over night and now honda say you can actually even have filling stations from your house.Pricing of these vehicles is the next big issue but then once they are mass produced costs should come down significantly.

If Hydrogen is the way forward then why are automobile manufacturers diverting their attention towards Hybrids[vehicles which run on conventional fuel + battery power or entirely on battery power].The answer seems to be that hybrid vehicles do not need much of a change from the present infrastructure and also vehicle set-up which means overall costs are lower than the one for hydrogen powered vehicles and the fact that the hybrids can be introduced on the roads sooner than the hydrogen powered vehicles.Hybrids however cannot be an alternative for the future primarily because the hybrids still depend on scare fuel options like electricity and oil for powering them.

In one way its a good thing that oil prices are rising so sharply,now manufacturers and governments will be forced to take hard decisions and quickly.Its for governments to encourage the use of Hydrogen powered vehicles and help in setting up the necessary infrastructure as well.If they do so then electric cars and hybrids may very well be only a stop-gap arrangement until the onslaught of the Hydrogen powered vehicles.These vehicles may just be what your grandchildren may end up driving.