Will electric cars get another look?

Watch much of the Tonight Show, and you'll learn just how much the host loves cars. We have a feeling that if Jay Leno retires as scheduled next year, he'll be spending more time at places like his garage (http://www.jaylenosgarage. com/), the envy of gear-heads everywhere.

A year ago, Leno's column in Popular Mechanics magazine covered three alternative power cars in his collection. With gasoline up nearly a dollar since then, the column is proportionately that much more interesting reading.

The first is his Baker Electric, built in 1909 and marketed to women on the basis of its clean, quiet operation. It made it about 100 miles on a charge of its conventional batteries.

The second is an Owen Magnet, essentially a hybrid, in which a gasoline engine powers a generator which creates a magnet force field between it and the drive wheels. Introduced in 1915, it featured an advanced 24-volt electrical system and a black control box called "the brain."

The third is a 1925 Doble steamer, featuring 525 feet of steam coal, an automatic control system using quartz rods and about a thousand foot-pounds of torque, capable of propelling it up to 100 without a clutch or transmission while meeting today's emission standards.

Unfortunately, Leno laments, each was ahead of its time with technology never to be perfected or put into widespread use.

Or will it be?

Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean there aren't those who are willing to try.

Among them is a company in Norway, which plans to build and sell electric cars in major U.S. cities, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The small, all-electric car, just hitting the market in Scandinavia, will cost less than $25,000 and will be marketed in densely populated cities in the United States.

It will have a range of about 110 miles when fully charged from a wall plug-in -- only a little better than Leno's 1909 Baker.

And Chevrolet officials still say they plan to have their "Volt" electric car on the market by late 2010. It promises a 40-mile all-electric capability and a range of about 640 miles utilizing a fuel-based power source to recharge the on-board lithium-ion battery pack.

Forty miles won't get you very far in Nebraska or Kansas, but 640 miles at one sitting should be enough for the most hardened driver.

Still, 40 miles on a charge would get most of us to work and back without burning ANY high-priced gasoline.

Alternative power cars may not have made it in the past, but if gasoline climbs to $4 or above, we'll bet they get another serious look.