The outlook for sales of electric cars is not as rosy as some manufacturers forecast and, as a result, the end of the internal combustion engine has been predicted to come far too soon. If inexpensive, fast-recharging battery packs cannot be developed and built quickly, the internal combustion engine may be with us for a long, long time.

Last week Nissan unveiled the new all-electric LEAF at their facility in Yokohama, Japan where they released the results of a Nissan/MIT study which claims the number of electric vehicles on the road will exceed 10 million by 2015.

However, according to auto forecasting firm CSM Worldwide, there will be only 2.9 million electric cars and hybrids on the world’s roads by that date with a market share of only 3.6 percent. Pure-electric vehicles, according to both CSM and J.D. Power & Associates will total only about 400,000 units on the world’s roads by 2015 and equal only a zero point five percent (0.5%) share of the market. More