If you wanted to see a snapshot of an industry in quick-fire transition, there was no better place to be than the 2009 New York Auto Show. Gone were the heavy duty Hummers and the lumbering SUVs. In their place, the sexy Tesla Model S, the funky MINI E, and the friendly bug of the Mitsubishi i MiEV: all of them spanking new - all of them electric.rnFor the moment at least, it's something of a gold rush, with shades of the dotcom boom as brash startups like Fiskar, Tesla and Aptera challenge the struggling industry giants.rnBut if all the hype around 'EVs', as electric vehicles are known, sounds a touch familiar, it should. Back in the mid-90s, electric cars popped up from major manufacturers such as General Motors and Toyota, partly in response to California's ambitious zero emissions standards.
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