2011 Wheego LiFe

Wheego Electric Cars, a U.S. EV manufacturer that uses bodies built by China's Shuanghuan Automobile that look suspiciously like a Fortwo but are totally not-a-Smart. Los Angeles is the perfect place to launch the 70 mile per hour top speed, 100-mile range LiFe car, McQuary said.

McQuary said his company could make and sell a few thousand vehicles next year. So far, Wheego has collected around 200 orders for the LiFe. The company sold roughly 300 copies of the low-speed version, that supposed Cadillac of NEVs.

2011 Wheego LiFe gets its name, from the chemical symbols Li and Fe) gives a solid center of gravity to the car, but you can't get past the cheap look and finish of the interior on the production model drove. The vinyl seats we suitable, but not extermely comfortable. The production model we drove was also a little noisy, especially when we stepped on the go pedal.

The LiFe has three transmission modes: normal, sport (which bumps the motor controller to work at 650 amps instead of 550, which in turn raises the 0-30 acceleration rate by around 25 percent) and eco mode that extends range. The car also has four-wheel, anti-lock breaks, tire pressure monitoring system and regenerative breaking. The brakes felt soft, which is, again, something Boyd said customers wanted. They didn't like the firmer, grippier regen the car had earlier, he said, so the engineers toned it down. The car does creep at up to three mph and acceleration – in any mode – is decent but nothing to write home about. Boyd said the creep was put in there to make driving the LiFe as similar as possible to driving a standard gasoline vehicle.

Other things to note are a dash that is dominated by a bright LCD screen that is easily visible in strong sunlight and the car's small size, which means it's a fine urban performer – as anyone who's handled a slightly smaller Fortwo can attest.

This is going to be a tough sell, given the other plug-in vehicles available in the very near future.