Are automakers blocking plug-in hybrid vehicles, electric cars?

Did GM kill the electric car? Are plug-in hybrids a reality being ignored by the Big 3? Those are some important questions regularly being asked by those concerned with the environment and foreign oil dependency. Yet, what is the truth?

That's the focus of the article New race for automakers: Build a better battery.

"What you're seeing with GM is that they're going for broke on batteries," says Tom Gage, president of AC Propulsion, a San Dimas, Calif., company that retrofits hybrid cars. "There is a very real race going on here, but not just with General Motors and Toyota. All the car companies understand battery technology is key to electrifying the automobile."

So, are plug-in hybrids being ignored by automakers?

"Saying battery technology is ready today for plug-ins is like saying we can have the technology for a moon colony - we just need to do a little engineering," says Ann Marie Sastry, a battery expert and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. "System integration is a big thing and there are still scientific challenges. It's not just a matter of putting parts together."

Read the full Christain Science Monitor article.