(PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, the big news at the 2010 North American International Auto Show was all the electric cars and hybrids. Indeed, hybrid and electric cars are ready to go high end, with a number of companies, from small start-ups to major names, rolling out high performance and luxury cars that use some version of an alternative to gasoline.
SSI-Racing offers the Electric 65 Coupe, a vehicle that holds three world records for speed. It has high performance, and might even be in the running for the fastest car period -- forget about just being the fastest electric car. It has a range in the neighborhood of 300 miles, depending on how you drive it. Which is pretty good for any car's ability to drive. Of course, this high performance car is a little out of the range of the mass market at around $100,000.
Other cars shown off at the Auto Show include the Cadillac XTS Platinum, a plug-in hybrid concept car and the Audi e-tron concept car (complete with four wheel dive). These high end cars are likely to be quite expensive, and out of reach for many of us. (But Cadillac and Audi are out of my reach anyway.) So far, these are mostly concept cars, but the fact that auto makers are presenting them indicates that they are getting ready to see if there would be some interest in this market.
If you are a little more interested in something that perhaps costs a little less, other car makers are offering new versions of hybrid and electric cars as well. Hyundai is offering a plug-in concept, and Honda is offering the CR-Z as a sort of updated (and gasoline alternative) CR-X.
Of course, once we're at the point where hybrid and electric are available for the high performance driver, the technology developed should eventually become less expensive, and more widespread, helping more people get access to these types of cars. And, naturally, if you can afford some of the high end vehicles, it appears that you won't have to wait too much longer to see them in hybrid or electric form.
Explore further:
User awareness key to effective energy monitoring
