Ed Begley, Jr. will soon have more options should he be in need of a new electric car. Daimler AG has announced the acquisition of an equity stake of nearly 10% in Tesla Motors (not to be confused with these guys -- five man electrical band, indeed).

The German-based automaker is teaming up with the California company to work on making electric cars "a reality." Tesla is a visionary on the electric-car front; its Roadster, which runs on battery power, is the only electric vehicle approved for highway use in both Europe and North America. (Of course, it also comes with a price tag of $101,500 -- you'd have to save a lot on gas to make up for not buying a Taurus).

The Holy Grail of the car business now is to build rechargeable batteries making the use of fossil fuel limited or unnecessary. The work on these projects has gone on for years, but finding a technology that will take a car hundreds of miles without a new charge has proved difficult.

Now, several companies are pulling together to make a battery and they want the US government to hand them a huge amount of cash. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Fourteen U.S. technology companies are joining forces and seeking $1 billion in federal aid to build a plant to make advanced batteries for electric cars, in a bid to catch up to Asian rivals that are far ahead of the U.S."

What the group probably does not talk much about is that several companies in Asia already are in the process of developing and marketing advanced batteries. So, why waste the government's money? Some analysts are worried that many of these batteries will be sold to car companies in Japan and Korea and that US car companies will not get their fair share.

Since when is the US government the bank for developing technology that is already moving along well outside the US? If American car companies want the batteries, they simply have to be willing to pay a competitive price for them. The federal government is about to spread enough money around the car industry so that it does not need to add to that by reinventing the battery wheel.

If American companies cannot innovate as fast as Asian rivals, that's tough luck.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) investors, as well as auto industry trackers, will want to read Jonathan Rauch's "Electro-Shock Therapy" in the July 2008 issue of Atlantic Magazine. Mr. Rauch was given unprecedented access to all personnel involved in GM's company-wide commitment to have a market-ready electric car by late 2010. GM personnel note the Chevy VOLT, as the car is named, will not be a hybrid per se, but will be the first mass market electric car with a range of 40 miles per charge, enough to cover the daily commute of 75% of American workers. The car's small gasoline engine will be used to recharge the battery, while only electricity will be used to power the wheels. GM is trying to wow consumers by manufacturing an affordable electric car that will sever the connection between driving and the gas pump.

GM lost the engineering and publicity wars on electric cars to Toyota's Prius years ago. Toyota has been eating GM's lunch ever sense. According to GM's VP Bob Lutz, it's payback time. Using the same rhetoric President Kennedy used to launch the Apollo space program and race to land on the moon, GM has sectioned off the Volt division and given it complete decision-making and spending authority to reinvent not only the electric automobile, but also the company itself. In one Volt engineer's words: "Go big or go home."

Yes, there are problems with the weight to power ratio in the battery. And yes, production of both the battery and the car body are being rushed towards production without the normal period of evaluation. But GM has staked its future on the Volt, and unlike my colleague Michael Rainey who isn't that positive on the Volt, there's reason for at least cautious optimism, a quality currently in short supply coming out of Detroit.

The Department of Energy announced it was throwing some money at the electric car dream yesterday. They'll spend "up to $30 million in funding over three years" on three projects they hope will produce a viable electric car by 2014. Wow, that's a whole $10 million a year!

The DOE is funding three projects they hope will produce an electric car that can go 40 miles on a charge, enough for 70% of daily commuters. They made the announcement at a conference on Plug-in Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington? Apparently the Energy Department decided the role was to make a token amount of funding and let other countries take the lead. The plan is to split the cost 50-50 with industry. General Motors (NYSE:GM) is going to work on a Lithium-Ion battery. Ford (NYSE:F) will work on a way to speed up mass production of electric cars. And General Electric (NYSE:GE) will try to figure out a two-battery, 40-mile system.

I'm sure everyone's working on all sorts of other projects, but this one just seems tiny, especially in context of the current oil crisis and the $40.1 billion requested Department of Transportation budget for FY2009. As cNet's Elsa Wenzel helpfully points out, Toyota (NYSE:TM), working with Matsushita Electric Industrial (NYSE:MC), thinks it can mass market an electric car by 2010.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) is setting itself up for what could be the largest unveiling of an electric vehicle ever with its Volt line of electrically-powered vehicles. As gasoline reaches and surpasses the $3/gallon mark nationwide, customers have to wonder why no car manufacturer has fulfilled the need for an electric car; and one that does not have limitations rendering it non-competitive to a standard gas-powered passenger car, like these Zapcars pictured here.

GM executives have recently said that the Volt is on track for sale for late 2010, and it will be a rechargeable vehicle that is 100% electric, not a hybrid. It's not only nice looking, it would eliminate gas as a variable in that daily commute. To some, that means a savings of a few hundred dollars (or more) per month. GM, however, is not going at this effort alone. Toyota is in the race as well, and there will soon be a "showdown" with GM, according to a senior GM executive last week.

The Chevy Volt should be launched in November 2010, according to GM CEO Richard Wagoner and head of global product development Robert Lutz. That's three years from now, and it's still considered an "aggressive" posture by GM's global design and manufacturing teams. Will Toyota be able to beat that deadline and deliver a solid, 100% electric offering within the next three years and once again show up its main global rival? Lutz said that by next April, one company will be able to show a prototype on the street, and the other will take a credibility hit (stating that batteries won't be able to push cars, even in three years). We'll see who is correct in about five months or so.

Japanese automaker Toyota (NYSE: TM) stole the hybrid vehicle marketing limelight years ago with its Prius passenger car -- you know, the one that has a gas mileage figure of over 50 miles per gallon. Due to combining a smaller gasoline engine with an electric motor, the smaller car has a remarkable fuel efficiency rating, and the word of mouth that started selling the Prius to ecologically-aware consumers and assorted environmentally-conscious folks was like a wildfire in the passenger car market. The waiting line to buy one was half a year in many cases.

Although many detractors say the Prius' claimed gas mileage is not what it's cracked up to be, the popularity contest has already been won. The next step for Toyota would be to make the nameplate in an all-electric fashion instead of a hybrid design that still uses gasoline. The trouble is, no company can produce an all-electric car that has the same amenities as the modern internal combustion vehicle: range, comfort, size, price and design. If anyone can ever make this a reality, though, it would be Toyota (although an effort is still plenty of years off).

Until then, perhaps the automaker is looking at plug-in electric hybrid vehicles for Act II of its hybrid car marketing strategy? At the recent Tokyo Auto Show, Toyota showed off designs that use a hybrid propulsion system that contains a larger battery, allowing the vehicle to travel short distances at highway speeds powered by the electric motor alone, instead of the motor just being used in city stop-and-go traffic. The battery pack would need recharging at night, instead of being charged by regenerative braking like in current designs, but all things considered, this would be the next step to an all-electric design that uses little to no internal combustion (or gas). Whoever gets there first will hold the holy grail of sales to customers needing smaller passenger cars. General Motors (NYSE: GM) isn't sitting still at all, though.

Toyota Motors (NYSE: TM) is launching the first U.S. tests of its plug-in hybrid technology in two converted Prius hybrids. The test cars will run on nickel-metal hydride batteries for seven miles before a gas engine kicks in.

Although seven miles is nothing to rejoice about, other automakers are also developing plug-in vehicles that are more technologically advanced:

• General Motors (NYSE: GM) is developing the Volt plug-in, with hopes of reaching 40 miles of electric-powered travel with the new lithium-ion batteries.

• Ford Motor (NYSE: F) announced earlier this month it plans to give 20 Escape Hybrid SUVs modified as plug-ins to Southern California Edison for testing.

• Chrysler Group (NYSE: DCX) modified several Sprinter delivery vans as plug-ins, with one designated for newspaper delivery.

Here's an interesting little tidbit I recently culled from United Press International last week: It seems that a firm in Cincinnati is planning to market some snazzy electric retrofit cars.

The strategy is to take General Motors (NYSE: GM) Saturn vehicles, including four-door sedans and SUVs, rip the internal combustion engines out of them, and replace those engines with plug-in electric power plants, batteries, and some computer stuff. The company is called Advanced Mechanical Products Inc. and is reportedly headed up by partners Jack Kuntz and Steve Burns. The claims are that the cars will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds, run about 150 miles between charges, and will sell for under $50,000.

I'm wondering what the company will do with those left over Saturn engines. I'm also wondering why the choice of Saturns to retrofit. And I'm wondering where I put that ten-foot pole I had. No matter, I wouldn't touch this scenario with one anyway. Perhaps when those guys drive one from Cincinnati to my house, I might think about it, but until then my opinion is: Beware in Ohio.

As Jonathan Berr pointed out early today it is quite possible that the days of cheap gas are gone forever. In another article Sarah Gilbert told her story of hanging up her keys for good in her fight against high gas prices and carbon emissions. As more and more people become tired of high gas prices and a steadily worsening environment, auto makers are going to be under increasing pressure to move towards alternative fuel vehicles.

Today General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) announced its timetable for getting out an electric car. The company now thinks that it will be able to start to produce a completely electric car by the year 2010. While its target is still 3 years away it is good to see progress being made towards the day of the electric car taking over the roadways.

But don't get too carried away just yet. GM is hedging its bets and has already stated that whether or not it will actually be able to meet the 2010 deadline remains a mystery even to them. It is estimating there is a 10% chance that the program will fail to be successful.

The company expects to have a prototype of the car, called the Volt, finished by the end of this year. Critics like to point to a failure in 2006 for GM to capitalize on their first attempt at the electric car named the EV1 but the company firmly insists this time will be different.

While plans are still way up in the air, GM thinks that the Volt is going to be able to offer customers up to 40 miles on a charged battery, which should provide the average commuter a full days worth of power on a single charge. Not ideal for long trips, but more than plenty for getting around town.

Good luck GM. We are cheering for you!

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.