With an automobile market at 15-year lows, hammered by a crumbling economy and gasoline prices only slightly lower than paying for brain surgery, General Motors has finally got religion!

Last week, Chevrolet unveiled its new plug-in electric car, the Volt.

Reuters reported in this article on the unveiling, "In what has been billed as a race with Toyota Motor Corp to be the first to market with a plug-in car, GM has pushed hard to develop the Volt in time for it to hit showrooms in 2010. Fanfare surrounding the Volt comes as the No. 1 U.S. automaker has been struggling with flagging sales of less-efficient sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks amid soaring prices at the pump."

Although this makes it seem as if the big three U.S. auto makers were caught unawares by the market, the sad truth is the CEOs of these corporations were criminally delusional in the belief that they could make gas-guzzling SUVs forever and the consequences would never come home to roost.

As anyone who has ever seen the disturbing documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" can tell you, GM already had a lock on the market with a plug-in Saturn that was so popular with those who leased it (including, yes, Ed Begley Jr.) that they staged protests and pickets when GM took the cars back and refused to allow them to be purchased.

But some well-coiffed shmo who has since no doubt pushed the panic button his golden parachute decided it was bad business to be on the cutting edge of new technology. So it's Back to the Future for GM.

The Volt is designed to run for 40 miles on a lithium-ion battery pack that can be recharged at a standard electric outlet. The car also includes a gas tank for trips longer than 40 miles.

In the cost department, GM says the Volt will cost about 2 cents a mile to operate on battery power, compared with 12 cents a mile using gasoline priced at $3.60 a gallon. The car maker said the Volt will cost 80 cents a day for a full charge, or less than the price of a cup of coffee, Reuters reported.

But the savings won't be immediate. The price is expected to be between $30,000 to $50,00, although there is speculation that federal tax credits or rebates may lower the costs for consumers.

In its first 12 months of production, GM expects to manufacture 10,000 Volt cars in a plant in Detroit, ultimately increasing that to 60,000 a year. The first Volts should hit GM showroom floors by November 2010, according to Reuters.

But it turns out that GM is not the only player in this suddenly crowded field, which also includes Nissan.

Today, Chrysler announced that it too will have an electric car model in showrooms by 2010.

As noted in this article in The New York Times, "by promising an electric model in showrooms by 2010, Chrysler is competing head-on with General Motors and Nissan Motors of Japan to be the first to market in the United States. .

"But rather than building a new vehicle platform as G.M. has done with the Volt, Chrysler plans to adapt existing models to electric power. At a press conference, Chrysler unveiled electric versions of its Town and Country minivan and Jeep Wrangler S.U.V."

The Times also reported that "Both models are so-called range-extended vehicles like the Volt, meaning they can travel 40 miles on battery power alone and up to 400 more miles with the assistance of a small gas engine.

"The third model, the Dodge EV, is a rear-wheel-drive sports car with a body built by the European automaker Lotus. The car, which is powered solely by a lithium-ion battery pack, is said to have a driving range of more than 150 miles and can accelerate to 60 miles an hour in less than five seconds."

Zoweee!, that doesn't sound like a car Ed Begley Jr. would drive.

And, since we spare no effort here at The Thin Green Line to bash Congress and the Bush administration for being pig-headed and short-sighted (not necessarily in that order), let us hasten here to pat them on the back for the $25 billion federal loan program that is helping to fund research into the improvements in battery technology.

In the realm of improving battery technology, regular reader Thomas Mounce sent along thins link to this story in The Reading Eagle which indicates that a Berks County company is the latest beneficiary of the new green economy.

Apparently the Lyons-based East Penn Manufacturing Co. Inc., will be making a new "UltraBattery" for North American distribution that was designed and engineered by the Furukawa Battery Co., the paper reported.

East Penn told the Eagle the UltraBattery is ideal for hybrid electric vehicles.

While we're on the subject of batteries, I should also probably issue a fair warning here. Prior to my happy arrival in Pennsylvania, I lived in a quaint little New York town on the Hudson River called Cold Spring.

You wouldn't have known it from looking at it, but in addition to being known for dramatic views of the Hudson Highlands and more antique stores per square mile than paved roads, it was also home to a Superfund site, specifically, a former nickel battery plant that had leached cadmium into a wetland of the river.

So it won't be long after singing the praises of battery technology as a way to combat global warming that I will probably start complaining about all the groundwater pollution from lithium battery plants...

Hey folks, that's why that green line is so thin.