Electric, Hybrid Autos: Oohs, Ahs and Question Marks (Photos)

The future is here and for Detroit, that means the era of nail-biting officially begins now. After years of criticism, the industry no longer has to hear complaints that it's slow to bring out car technologies that bypass fossil fuels. At a trade conference this week, auto representatives gathered to put on display the latest electric and hybrid car models - and there is no shortage - as well as to swap thoughts about this nascent market.

Bringing out a new car model always entails some risk. But industry insiders are nervously awaiting the reaction among consumers to this new generation of vehicles. Despite the green-is-good advertising mantra, nobody yet knows whether shoppers will embrace electric plug-in vehicles or choose less expensive traditional models that run solely on gasoline. It's that very uncertainty which has presented automakers with a dilemma: How much more should they invest in developing electric vehicles without first knowing when - or whether - there will be a payoff for their efforts.

Uncle Sam is helping out - temporarily - by offering up to $7,500 in tax credits to consumers who buy battery-powered cars. But that's only a temporary incentive. And there's an equally, if not more, daunting challenge. As CNET's Martin LaMonica reported this week, consumers still remain unclear about both the technology and trade-offs between a traditional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, extended-range electric vehicle, and a battery-electric vehicle.

Maybe the best summation was offered by Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of global electrification. She acknowledged to LaMonic that "we don't know what we don't know and products haven't been in customers' hands long enough for us to be right 100 percent of the time." The bottom line? "This is a marathon of 50 years to change the fuel source diversity. It's not going to happen overnight."