With gasoline costs going up to new highs this summer, many car manufacturers are formulating electric cars, most of which will likely make it to the market between 2010 and 2012. If the skill survives to build electric cars that do as well as today’s gasoline-powered models, their logic says, electric cars must cost less to run. But is it true?

The increased electrical utilization may come from a less-than-clean electrical plant, for illustration. An electric car secured into a wall receptacle that gets its power from a coal-burning power plant is fossil-fuel powered car. It may emit lesser emissions than a gasoline-powered car, but it isn’t need fully a free lunch.