I attended a dinner with Bob Lutz several years ago before the sales launch of both…

I attended a dinner with Bob Lutz several years ago before the sales launch of both the +Nissan Leaf and +Chevrolet Volt. At the time Nissan/Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn was laying out his aggressive plans to offer at least different electric vehicles and sell many hundreds of thousands a year. 

I asked Lutz if he thought Ghosn was a madman or a genius based on these plans. To my surprise, he replied that he thought it was a bit of both. If EVs took off, everyone would consider him a genius for jumping in with both feet. On the other hand, you have to be a bit crazy to make such a multi-billion dollar bet on battery powered cars. 

It's still way too early for a definitive judgement on electric vehicles, but I'm inclined to think that hybrids, plug-in hybrids and extended range EVs will be far more successful than pure BEVs.