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...

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...