It looks like a 2009 Smart ForTwo, it's made in China, it only goes 40 miles on its batteries, and it has a dopey name. So why should you care about the Wheego Whip?

Our colleague Rex Roy has just published his full review of the 2009 Wheego Whip, but we thought a little context would be useful.

Right now it's in a category of cars called "neighborhood electric vehicles," which are limited to low speeds (35 mph or less) and licensed only for certain types of roads.

On Wednesday, we covered the news that Coda Automotive will offer a $45,000 all-electric four-door sedan for sale in California, starting in the autumn of 2010.

The car project and the company were formerly part of Miles Automotive, which sells small, slow, plastic neighborhood electric vehicles. This car, however, is their first highway-capable product--and it may also be the first Chinese-made car sold in the US.

Yesterday, we had a chance to chat with

EEStor is a company purportedly on the cusp of commercializing a potentially disruptive technology. EEStor president, former hard drive scientist Dick Weir has been trying to develop something called the EESU or electric energy storage unit.

The device is a solid-state battery-like material that stores energy in a composition-modified alumina-coated barium titanate compound that is screen-printed and pressed in layers. Theoretically this material can hold 10 times the energy of a lithium

Back on Earth Day, April 22nd, Peapod Mobility was to begin accepting orders online for its line of Peapod neighborhood electric vehicles or NEV for short.  The announcement of accepting orders came and went with no change to their website and no place to put an order in.

Peapod, a Chrysler product line, markets several different NEVs.  They are capable of speeds up to 25 mph and can travel for as little as 2 cents per mile and have a cute, smile inducing face.  With a range of 30 miles and