While Detroit Slept

The innovation will come from somewhere, and it probably won't be from us because we're so busy defending our father/mother/aunt/uncle/cousin who worked at one of the Big Three that we don't care about innovation right now, we want our comfortable pensions, dammit!

Better Place wants to use the cell phone model of buying minutes to buying miles on their electric vehicle network:

http://www.betterplace.com/our-bold-plan/business-model/

well the analogy is a bit off, I do not agree with the bailing out in general, I think it's akin to curing the symptom as opposed to the real desease

But electric cars are still cars, they ride on roads, mechanical etc ...

It's shell, exxonmobile and Saudi Arabia who might need to worry. Electricity is a real substitute product to theirs

Many companies cut RnD costs by following the principal of "don't innovate imitate" cars were invented in USA but this "innovation" found it's way to europe and Asia

Detroits problem is not innovation, it's implementation. Which sort of explain how the bailout might actually be sane

General Motors produced electric cars over 10 years ago, it just wasn't profitable at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

It is also interesting to note that 50% of the electricity generated in the United States in 2006(latest report available) came from burning fossil fuels.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat1p1.html

Here's another Danish alternative to Detroit http://www.ruf.dk/ since the author brings it up.

Wouldn't worry too much about them though, they've been going for 20 years and only have a test-setup to show for it.