Car makers are preparing to introduce plug-in electric cars in 2010, but their success will depend on players beyond their control: the electric utilities. The plug-ins are a new generation of hybrid cars that can run 10 to 40 miles on electric batteries before they have to tap their gasoline engines. This gives them, on a tank of gas, a driving range of as much as 600 miles without recharges to potentially thousands of miles with recharges. [Photo] The Edison SmartConnect meter, above, knows when an electric car’s battery is charged. Utilities would prefer charging at night. To recharge the battery, drivers will plug it into a standard electric wall outlet at a cost of a dollar or two. As a result, the car companies are betting that the plug-ins will succeed where previous electric cars have failed, lifting their industry from the doldrums and slashing oil consumption. But the cars will need ready access to inexpensive, plentiful electricity. That means the new vehicles ‘will make utilities more important than the oil companies’ to many drivers, says General Motors Corp. spokesman Robert Peterson. If utilities discourage the cars’ proliferation by charging more for their electricity, the push […]