A Palestinian-designed electric car drew admiring stares on Tuesday from Gazans forced to use cooking oil to power their cars because of a fuel shortage. "At first people laughed, saying it would not work, now people are begging us to convert their cars," said Fayez Amman. Working with fellow electrical engineer Wasim al-Khuzundar, Amman hooked up an engine to 32 batteries. Driving their small car through the streets of Gaza City, they said the vehicle could travel up to 200 km (120 miles) on a single charge.

The head of an Israeli-backed electric car project estimated on Sunday that its partner, the Renault-Nissan alliance, would likely invest $500 million to $1 billion in the swappable-battery electric cars. "This is the cost for a three-year car programme," Shai Agassi, the founder and chief executive of California-based Project Better Place, said on the sidelines of a news conference to introduce the electric car prototype.

Kleiner Perkins is joining hands with another clean technology-focused venture capital firm and a Norwegian company to bring electric cars to the United States, signalling a Silicon Valley push to make American driving greener. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Boston-based RockPort Capital Partners and electric car maker Think Global will create a new Menlo Park, California-based company called Think North America. The deal was announced on Monday at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference in Pasadena, California.

California regulators cut by 70 percent the number of emission-free vehicles that automobile manufacturers must sell in California in the three years beginning in 2012.

us-based Occupational Knowledge (ok) International recently announced the launch of

India's electric car Reva sets the wheels in motion in climate-conscious UK

Electric Car