Can electric cars save Detroit, jobs and the economy?

Nobody knows how many people will be lined up at the dealership doors with checkbooks on hand when the new wave of battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars--including the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, Coda sedan, Fisker Karma, Wheego Whip Life and BYD E6--enter the market by the end of the year.

It's a no-brainer that green cars--if they're produced in sufficient numbers--will be a boon to the economy, and a rare lift for American auto manufacturing. A new report issued Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, the United Auto Workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council concludes that new vehicle technology could create as many 150,000 U.S. jobs (whether they'll also be unionized is anyone's guess).

Many of those jobs will flee overseas, the report says, unless the Department of Energy continues to subsidize car and battery plants on American soil. "We want to reduce carbon pollution and many unemployed people want to return to work, and building better cars can help with both," said Peter Kehner, executive director of NRDC. The report estimates that the U.S. could capture as much as 75 percent of the "total technology value" (and the same percentage of job benefits) from the new green cars.

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