Prediction: Electric Cars

As of 2009, electric cars are still something of the future. The gas pump remains the source of energy that gets us from place to place. With the plunge of the economy and oil prices falling to 25 percent of what they were a year and a half ago, it's a little unclear where we're headed.

But I'm convinced that once the economy recovers and growth resumes, we'll be right back to where we were. In the end, I think the electric car will become as mainstream as the gasoline-powered cars were in the twentieth century.

How quickly that will happen, I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of electric cars on the road by 2030, perhaps even a majority, and there will be no going back.