20100111 Big-City Buyers Seem Ready for Electric Cars

clipped from www.time.com 2010 could finally be the year of the electric car, with at least two major models — the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt and the all-electric Nissan Leaf a new report by the consulting firm McKinsey finds that in megacities — metropolitan areas with over 10 million people — there might already be enough interest to get electric cars moving off the lots surprisingly fast. Already densely populated and set to grow — 286 million people lived in 19 megacities in 2007, a number expected to rise to 447 million people in 27 megacities by 2025 — megacities are the perfect laboratory for the electric car. There's also a strong need in megacities to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and other air pollutants — megacities already emit roughly 10% of global CO2 emissions. The McKinsey survey found that in New York, Paris and Shanghai many drivers report that they would be willing to buy electrics even in the face of range limitations and other inconveniences