In 1990 General Motors unveiled a new battery-powered electric vehicle, called the Impact - the flashiest, best-engineered electric vehicle ever. Thanks to an advanced electric drivetrain and a light-weight aerodynamic, energy-conserving body, the Impact accelerates faster than comparable gasoline-powered cars. However, even under the best conditions, despite its advanced technology and its state-of-the-art lead-acid battery, it will go no more than 120 miles and, as with all battery-powered vehicles, it requires hours to recharge.

The great attraction of electric cars is the absence of tailpipe emissions. In the parlance of the California Air Resources Board, they are zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). The Board rekindled interest among major automakers in ZEVs a couple years ago when it announced that 10 percent of all cars sold in California by 2003 must be zero-emitters. Many analysts believe it will be difficult to sell enough battery-powered cars to meet that requirement. Virtually no one believes ZEVs will dominate the motor-vehicle market unless they can accelerate as fast, drive as far, and be refueled as quickly as today's gasoline cars.

Despite huge reductions of noxious emissions from factories and cars, Southern California's air is still terrible. It's so bad that the state is requiring that two percent of new cars sold in 1998 be zero polluters and ten percent by 2003. Many researchers here have become preoccupied with teh foul air, and so are searching for ways of making cars less obnoxious and hence better servants.