In a candid interview at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan executive vice-president Andy Palmer explained why he believes that "it's complete bullshit" to assume that electric vehicles emit more CO2 than comparable gasoline-fueled automobiles.

According to numerous media reports, the President will announce tomorrow a new agreement with automakers and California to strengthen carbon pollution and fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 mpg by 2025. The new agreement is the single biggest step the president can take to lower drivers’ gas bills and cut heat-trapping pollution at the same time.

There is general industry agreement that electric vehicle charging needs to be smart enough to respond to the changing conditions on the grid (to limit the impact on the grid) and to changing prices (to maximize the savings of driving electric). The looming question that will help to shape the ultimate success of EVs is, “Will that smart charging be enabled through smart meters, or through other devices?”

On Monday the Obama administration announced its intent to set 56.2 mpg as the starting point for a final decision on Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards leading into the 2025 model year. Would a strong standard necessarily mean that more plug-ins will be produced and bought? Yes and no.

Have you seen an electric car from General Motors prowling American roads lately? I bet you haven't. And yet you could easily see one if you happen to live around Karlsruhe, in Germany. These aren't Chevrolets, they're from Opel, the European arm of GM.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s Green Book is the bible of environmental rankings for cars and trucks. And the 2011 issue, the 14th annual edition, just hit the streets. Despite new competition from electric vehicles, such as the all-electric Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, the winner for the 8th consecutive year is the Honda Civic GX, which runs on compressed natural gas. “The Chevy Volt came very close to not making the list,” said Shruti Vaidyanathan, ACEEE Vehicle analyst. ACEEE uses an exacting methodology to rank all cars and trucks on an even playing ground.

If you are into electric cars, chances are pretty good that after a while you get a little tired of responding to claims that plug-in vehicles are simply shifting pollution from tailpipes to smokestacks. U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, predicts that within the next eight years, the U.S. will see "massive" closures of coal power plants. These plants are old and the cost of upgrading them to meet new regulations doesn't make sense when a company could easily open up a much cleaner natural gas power plant in its place—or even a nuclear facility or a wind farm.

Last week, Ron Gremban took possession of Chevy Volt #24. This was not merely a car purchase, but a moral victory for Gremban, who has been advocating electric cars for more than 40 years. Gremban believes the Chevy Volt is the most important car that General Motors has produced in the past century. Yet, he's now worrying more about the next century. “Even if EVs achieve 10 times the penetration rate that hybrids have seen, it will take at least 15 years to make a dent in either energy security or greenhouse emissions,” Gremban said.

Using the endangered polar bear as the mascot for an electric car marketing campaign strikes a powerful emotional chord, but it has its risks. Critics will argue that a car company should steer clear of an overtly environmental message trying to link cars, even electric ones, with saving the planet. Yet, according to Steve Amstrup, senior scientist with Polar Bears International, and the retired head of polar bear research for the U.S. government, the Nissan LEAF polar bear serves a higher educational purpose.

It started with an assignment from Home Power magazine. They asked me to create a graph to visualize the relative efficiency and green-ness of various cars—so I decided to undertake a comparison of CO2 emissions and cost for a typical gas, hybrid and electric car. The numbers surprised me, and showed in some rare cases where a 50-mpg hybrid beat out an EV for low emissions. Don't get mad if you don't like them. Tell me where I miscalculated.