With sales down, do electric cars have a future?

A man takes a picture of the new BMW electric car the ActiveE on April 18, 2011 in New York City. The BMW ActiveE, which will be available for lease in select markets beginning in Fall 2011, is BMW`s second electric vehicle. The ActiveE has an output of 170 horsepower and has a range of around 25 miles after just a one-hour charge at the wallbox and can fully charged within four to five hours.

Sales of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf drove off a cliff at the turn of the new year, falling by more than half. And that's despite the government rebates, savings from gas, and other incentives to get behind the wheel. For more on why this is and what that means for the future of electric cars, we're joined now by Paul Eisenstein, publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com.

For those who can't afford $100,000 on an electric car, there are plenty of others on the market now, besides the Tesla S. Automakers, including Ford and BMW, will put eight new models of plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads this year. The timing seems perfect with the cost of gas on the rise once again.

But so far, sales of electric cars have fallen far short of expectations.

Sales of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf drove off a cliff at the turn of the new year, falling by more than half. And that's despite the government rebates, savings from gas, and other incentives to get behind the wheel. But will the appetite for electric cars grow as more of them hit the road?

For more on why this is and what that means for the future of electric cars, we're joined now by Paul Eisenstein, publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, a website that covers the automotive industry.