Only 1 million hybrids and 25,000 battery electric vehicles will be sold globally this year

We hear a lot of talk these days about the "green economy"- and the automotive industry is certainly a big part of that - but the market for "green cars" is driven far more by government command than consumer demand.

For many years governments have been tightening vehicle emissions regulations. And companies have been experimenting with alternative energy vehicle solutions. We remember that GM developed the EV-1 in the 1990s. Hybrids have been around for 15 years.