Thank you Saudi Arabia!

This is ominous to getting to new technology, but it makes sense, people have wised up and realize vehicles can easily last 20 year. Especially with extreme care much much longer. Not good when it comes to saving us from dirty burning beasts.

@ HarveyD, true, more has to be done. And sharing is the best approach. Not sure my Company has put in charging stations based on surveys, but they have added to them, and have told employees they are adding more and are promoting the stations, with lights, and other gimmicks such as announcements. I know guys driving 4X4's that weigh 6,000 pounds and more, under 5 miles each way, and I tell you that kind of madness does have to stop. In fact a tax on certain size vehicles would not be a bad idea, unless you can justify the work aspect of the purchase. Toys that consume ~10 mpg may "feel" American, but it is a waste of important resources, plain as that. I love where Car Tech is going these days, these are awesome times.

I do see these MiEV's on the (CA) road but they are quite small, I would say I see many more Nissan Leaf's out there, and even more Tesla's which is an exotic electric over the MiEV. I think they are stressing the limits of small with the MiEV, and Toyota and Nissan are on a better track, with size of the vehicle. The Leaf seems to really be gaining steam. The more time goes by, and the more these EV or EV-hybrids gain on middle class friendly prices, the more I find myself attracted to their resilience and cost factors. The guys at work love their plug-ins, and my Company (Intel) just added a bunch of plug-in stations. When every town has plug-in stations, I think the tipping point will have been reached for these cars out here in California.

In Europe I believe diesel passenger cars have long since been the dominating choice. Over 50% pure diesel, but these run on low sulfer diesel fuel and sound about exactly like gas. Perhaps a slight odor, but to get 20-50% better MPG, that's worth it. Just take a look at a Yaris Gas versus Yaris Diesel. In the U.K. the choice is available, not here in the USA. The USA/North America seems to bias complex multi-powerplant systems. Those are not cost effective for the people that just need to move at a lower cost and a small budget. Where is the US$20,000 car that gets 55 - 60 mpg? For the student. Why are only the rich people getting the choices here, choices for all please. Part of this is the stigma of diesel in the USA, the manufacturers are shy to bring the models, and of course the government does nothing to help. They have a different agenda.

I think so, I find this to be Ford's most promising execution on their super low emissions and Plug-in/Hybrid strategy. Till now only Toyota can claim winner status, we are still looking for #2 aren't we?