another question

Out in my driveway is a 1993 Ford Escort that I havent driven for two or three years (my wife says I always have a dead car in the driveway... I wish I could say she's wrong, but it seems to be genetic - Dad did, too). I mention this because I would love to see a company offer retro-fitting kits for older cars like this one to change them over to electic vehicles. I really liked driving the Escort (I stopped because I the struts are shot, and I'm not sure it'll pass the emissions inspection required here in the city), but I'd like it even more if it was powered by electricity instead of gasoline.

So here's today's question: How about, as a condition of any bailout, we require automakers to provide just such a retrofit conversion? No, it wont sell any cars, but they dont seem to be doing much of that anyway, and if there's one thing that people do when the economy goes south, it's hold onto old stuff. If they can convert their old car, and The Big Three sells them the parts to do it (and perhaps the dealers provide the labor, for a fee of course), then maybe everybody wins.

Of course, all this is irrelevant if you live someplace that has gone out of it's way to make registration of such a vehicle difficult. Maybe we could adress that issue, also.

Addendum: an interesting article about Japanese executive compensation vs. American. Think we can get CEOs to discuss cutting their pay when they ask for taxpayer monies to keep "their" companies afloat?