The Year of The EV
Although by strict search-analytics terms, electric cars and electric vehicles declined or flat-lined in the Google-sphere in 2011, I still think we can dub 2011 the year of the EV.
The year started with incredible buzz over the Chevrolet Volt, over infrastructure build-out, over government investment, over battery R&D and then as the year progressed, the tone got decidedly more skeptical as green-tech companies (Solyndra for example) ran into funding or other financial problems and the Volt's battery fires furor grew.
Most of the people we've talked to on the Drive for Innovation sense that this is an important transition time for alternative energy technologies, especially when it comes to vehicles. I spent some of the past few weeks putting together a 2011 timeline of events in the EV world to try to put it in perspective. Scroll through below or click to go to the same thing on my Storify page.