Municipal leaders in Texas ' capital city, Austin , announced the formation of a new coalition of city governments and electric utilities united to lobby automakers to step up production of a new breed of plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. These new vehicles would allow drivers to charge up their batteries via wall sockets overnight and make their entire round trip commutes to work the next day using only electricity--and no gas whatsoever.

Austin is leading by example, offering to purchase as many as 600 of the plug-in hybrids--still on the drawing board at automakers--for its own municipal fleet once they are available. Backers of the so-called Plug-in Partners coalition are optimistic that several of the other American cities signed on as partners--including Baltimore, Denver, Arlington and Corpus Christi in Texas, Irvine and Los Angeles in California, and Seattle and Wenatchee in Washington state--will make similar commitments to help jumpstart the market for the new vehicles.

According to industry insiders, only DaimlerChrysler is nearing completion of a production-ready plug-in hybrid model in order to meet the needs of an unidentified fleet customer. The company's forthcoming Sprinter van can reportedly run 20 miles solely on electric power at speeds up to 75 miles per hour. Toyota , the world leader in production of hybrid cars, has no immediate plans to release a plug-in version, claiming that the technology won't be commercially viable for at least three years. Whether or not forthcoming pressure from the Plug-in Partners speeds up that process, however, is anybody's guess.

DaimlerChrysler, Toyota views

Now, only DaimlerChrysler is touting plug-in hybrids as a possible option. This month it began testing the plug-in hybrid Sprinter vans for an unidentified fleet customer. The plug-in can run 20 miles on electric power, with a top speed of 75 mph.

Toyota , the leader in hybrids, hasn't ruled out plug-in technology, but like other carmakers worries about the extra cost and whether enough drivers really want the vehicles. The industry says it was the reluctance to recharge a car that led to the demise of all-electric vehicles in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Plug-in hybrids are "interesting as a concept," said Toyota spokeswoman Cindy Knight, but "we do not feel it is proven yet," given the extra cost and environmental impacts.

Adding enough batteries to travel 30 to 40 miles on electric power could raise the cost of a vehicle by $10,000, Knight says.

And many plug-in hybrids would be getting electricity from dirty coal-burning power plants. "It's only clean if the electricity it comes from is similarly clean," Knight adds.

Plug-in hybrids could benefit from research into high-capacity lithium ion batteries, but Toyota engineers feel a breakthrough there "is three years away," Knight said, and then would require "another few years to reach commercial potential."

Evangelizing plug-in hybrids would also send a confusing message to drivers who have finally learned that hybrids are easy to use since they are not plugged in. "They're seamless to drive," Knight said of hybrids.

Next steps: Get 50 cities

Plug-in proponents counter that today's technology allows drivers to plug into a typical home outlet, not the specialized outlets of a decade ago.

As for power plants, proponents note that cleaner options for electricity are becoming available. Natural gas, which is much cleaner than coal, fires many newer power plants, and electricity from wind power costs about the same as electricity from natural gas.

The Plug-In Partners Coalition doesn't expect to change the industry overnight. But it does hope to get the nation's 50 largest cities on board over the next 12 months.

It has some Republicans and defense hawks among its supporters, including New York Gov. George Pataki and James Woolsey, a former CIA Director and founder of the nonprofit energy group Set America Free.

Woolsey and a Pataki representative joined Austin Mayor Will Wynn for the announcement Tuesday, along with other backers such as Kateri Callahan, president of the bipartisan Alliance to Save Energy, and Alan Richardson, president of the American Public Power Association.

Source: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10990145