IN north america,slow,short-ranged electric vehicles with a high initial cost have thus far appealed to a limited audtence. An american electric car that appeared briefly in the 1990s had a cruising speed of twenty-five miles per hour and could travel eighty-five miles on a single charge since then,battery technology has improved markedly. More recently,a north american company introduced an electric sports car that can travel 300 miles on a single charge and accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds,similar to the best sports car The hope is that north americans will embrace the new technology when they see an electric car as appealing as a conven tional sports car.