Electric car gets shock treatment

California leads exhaust emissions control legislation, and the rest of the world follows (in Britain's case, usually about 20 years later). But the latest Californian initiative looks like being undermined by some major car makers.

The authorities are insisting that by 1998, 2 per cent of all major model ranges are 'zero emission vehicles' - electric cars. Trouble is, say Ford and Chrysler, there is no sign anywhere in the world of the necessary breakthrough to make electric cars viable. They're too slow, too short of range, too pricey and too impractical. Ford says it would rather pay the proposed dollars 5,000 (pounds 3,350) fine per car than fulfil its quota of electric cars.