Is General Motors (GM) planning to partner up with the Electric Power Research Institute to develop electric plug-in vehicles? That's the rumor going around and though neither group will confirm the deal, a formal announcement regarding the joint effort could come later this week in San Jose, California. EPRI represents U.S. electric utilities that make up approximately 90 per cent of the country's electricity production.

GM meanwhile won't be taking it easy in the meantime as they continue to work toward the release of their Chevrolet Volt in 2010 and prpeare to announce a battery supplier for the vhicle by the end of this summer. It seems the the company can also count John McCain as a fan, as the Republican presidential nominee visited GM headquarters where the Volt is being manufactured last week and said that any customer that purchases one should be eligible for a $5,000 tax credit.

"Should be." Those are the key words. If McCain is elected, hopefully he won't have selective memory loss as so many politicians do and makes good on his campaign promises, like this and the $300 million reward for the automaker that sucessfully creates a car battery with “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”

» SustainableBusiness.com