Solar costs are too high to justify their use even with State rebates. If you calculate how much power is needed to cruise around in a car and look at how big of a solar panel you need to generate it, its cost, and its ROI, you'll quickly see why nobody is doing it already.

Something else that most people probably don't know is the cost of replacing those batteries in hybrids when the time comes. We all know how long rechargables last in our laptops and how much they cost when they can't hold a charge anymore. Well, guess what folks, hybrids use the same and I bet most will wake up to a rude surprise that when they sell their cars in a few years--they've lost most of their resale value because the next dude has to cough up $4-5K for a new set of batteries.

Buying a hybrid might save a few bux at the pump and do good for the environment in terms of emissions, but what folks fail to see is long term costs as well as the toxic waste of dumping out their spent batteries... Are they as environmentally clean as they think?

I'll stick with my 15mpg truck until someone can manufacture a flux capacitor that runs on trash. In the meantime I'll be cruising around in something that I can use and actually have some fun instead of driving a tiny hybrid that can't haul much more than a few bags of groceries :-)