DETROIT – General Motors Corp. will join 30 utility companies nationwide to accelerate research on electric vehicles. GM’s new electric initiative involves tax incentives for consumers to buy the new electric vehicles, developing efficient ways and means to keep them charged and making sure the nation’s electrical grid can handle the load created by a growing fleet of rechargeable vehicles, according to www.msnbc.msn.com.

GM is planning to release its Chevrolet Volt, an electric plug-in vehicle, in 2010. The Volt is expected to run 40 miles on battery power at a cost of a penny a mile, compared to 14 cents per mile for a gasoline engine.