irwinloy

Here in my car: Lowell Leifso stands beside his factory made plug-in electric Toyota RAV4.Lowell Leifso hasn't filled up at a gas station once since he bought a sparkling grey Toyota RAV4 earlier this year. It makes his presence at a Chevron on the corner of a Surrey boulevard all the more unlikely.

Leifso's commuter vehicle would look like any of the other popular Toyota crossover SUV models on the road today, if it weren't for the bright "electric vehicle" decals he has stuck to the car.

"It's quite an attention grabber," Leifso admits, as a few onlookers sneak a peak at his ride. "People ask questions like, 'Did you build it? Where can I get one?' Most people are just really interested to know a little bit more about it."

Leifso's 2003 model was among the last of the plug-in electric vehicles Toyota retailed in California before shutting down its line.

It's proven its worth to Leifso already. While acceleration on the vehicle is noticeably sluggish, the car can zip down the highway at a 130 kilometres an hour max. And with a range of about 160 km, it costs about $2 to "fill up" when he charges up the RAV4 at home through a paddle that slips in under the front grill.

That's about one-fifth of the cost of filling up a regular gas-powered RAV4, Leifso says.

And as gas prices head north of $1 per litre and car companies continue their very public struggle to survive, the interest in alternative fuel technologies is only spiking.

Today, most major manufacturers have rushed to promise electric vehicles for the market within years. GM, Dodge, Ford, Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota all have models in the works, to varying degrees. Canadian auto-parts magnate Frank Stronach wants to mass-produce electric cars within three years.

But what are the chances of the technology succeeding? Is the idea that electric vehicles will be widespread in just a few years merely a pipe dream?

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