It’s easy to imagine electric Honda Civics or Chevy Malibus, but electricity powering the creme de la creme of automobiles? A bit harder to imagine. Not for long, says Rolls Royce CEO Tom Purves. The bigwig has been considering making some batteries very, very happy by including them in the Phantom line. He says "many of its customers do small mileages exclusively in the city," and for these customers, "an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal."

He didn’t give a release date or price but don’t worry, the latter is probably out of your reach. If it’s not, shoot me an email. I have a business proposition I’d like to go over with you. (Cue evil laugh.)

Click the link for more information, Richie Rich.

BMW is readying the all-electric MINI E automobile. The motor offers 204 hp of pure electric power. The auto boasts a 150 mile range off of it’s 35 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. It can hit 62 mph in 8.5 seconds and completes a full charge in just 2.5 hours. In other words, it’s perfect.

BMW plans on leasing 500 of these bad boys in California, New York and New jersey sometime in 2009. We should wait in line like it’s 1985 and we are trying to snag some Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Sources indicate that the car may get a public unveiling at the upcoming LA Auto Show next month.

Hand it to the Brits – a British chain of supermarkets, Tesco, won an award for using Modec EV vans in their home delivery fleet.

These have a 100-mile range and are especially useful in cities because they do not idle (wasting electricity – or fossil fuels) so traffic congestion is no problem.

Great idea – who else will utilize it – UPS? FedEx? DHL? How about the good old US Postal Service?

Toyota has stumbled in the all-electric car race and now GM thinks it sees the finish line.

Because battery-safety problems, Toyota is delaying the plug-in, lithium-ion-based model until 2011.

Meanwhile, GM has just solidified a deal with Massachusetts-based A123 Systems to produce flat lithium-ion batteries for use in their future plug-in electric vehicles, like the Chevy Volt.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said, "I think that our No. 1 competitor has some problems with their technology, and I do think that it very definitely opens a window of opportunity for us to be first to market with a genuine plug-in hybrid."

May the best car win!

The electric companies want to keep their fingers in the consumer pie and continue to push for electric cars. Ford and Edison are embarking on this very project — in the creation of vehicles capable of being plugged into a power outlet. The new cars will use a combustion engine in a hybrid mode.

Details are forthcoming soon from a press conference in California.