I often hear people complain that hybrid cars aren't worth the money yet, but I think a better question would be, "Why don't car companies make hybrid cars the industry standard?" If they were the standard, the price of the car would immediately drop. But then, I guess, the car industry would lose money they have invested with gas companies.

Whie hybrid cars are great, do they really compare to the electric car? And while the electric car supposedly died in the 80's, one start-up is about to release a new, even more advanced version of the electric car:

The Tesla itself - 400 volts of electric potential wrapped in a carbon-fiber body - is as far-out as its namesake, styled like the cars you used to see only in cartoons but charged by a high-powered outlet in your garage. Stomp the accelerator, and thick cables connecting the liquid-cooled lithium ion battery pack to a printed circuit board send all that current into a series of silicon transistors the size of your little fingernail. They are capable of switching as much as 850 amps, which drive the AC motor as high as 14,000 rpm and send the rear-wheel-drive Roadster screeching off the line, with a range of 220 miles on a single charge. Acceleration is so fast (0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds) that you get pushed back in your seat for as long as you dare to keep your foot on the aluminum pedal.

That backdrop makes the story of the Tesla all the more remarkable. The car was conceived by Eberhard, an engineer, serial entrepreneur, and inventor (his name is on battery-cooling, electric motor, and power electronics patents filed by Tesla Motors). He was convinced that if he could outfit an existing sports car chassis with loads of laptop batteries, it would be feasible to build and he'd find plenty of buyers among the speed-loving, planet-conscious Silicon Valley set and beyond. But given that he had zero experience in the auto world and that gas was at a relatively cheap $1.50 a gallon, Eberhard, 48, couldn't find a VC firm willing to give him enough to build the car. Which is how he came to Elon Musk.

The 37-year-old Musk had co-founded PayPal, was forced out of the online-payment company, but cashed in when it was sold to eBay, giving him more than enough money to launch SpaceX, a private rocket company that aims to start shuttling people to the International Space Station by 2011. Big ideas, in other words, are Musk's specialty. After a two-hour meeting in February 2004, Musk agreed to plow $6.3 million into Tesla. He would become the company's chairman; Eberhard would be CEO.

Didn't McCain propose giving a “a $300 million government prize to whoever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology"? Shouldn't McCain be working his ass off to get Tesla Motors that money?