Resurrecting the electric car

In another wave of General Motor's blitzkrieg on the environmental side of the automotive business, a plug-in hybrid is apparently set for debut at the NAIAS. There's no word yet on which brand it will wear, nor what fuel type it will use. I'm with Autoblog on this one though: make it small and fuel efficient to the point of absurdity. Demonstrate it is cost effective for the consumer (lower cost per mile than comparable non-plug-in cars), give it acceptable performance (8 or 9 sec to 60 mph should do the trick) and make the vehicle fully operational even without access to an outlet (easier said than done). With those attributes, they won't be able to make them fast enough, and the rumored sequel "I Know who Killed the Electric Car" won't ever see the light of day.