GM goes electric - GM's solution

General Motors (GM), whose brands include Cadillac, Chevrolet, Opel, Saab and Vauxhall, believes that the answer is to diversify in order to reduce reliance on petrol.

To achieve this diversity, it is concentrating its efforts on producing electric cars under the banner of E-Flex.

Benoit Schlumberger, GM's Global Compact Segment Director, points out that electricity is derived from a wide variety of sources, including oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear power and biomass, so there is no reliance on any single product.

Schlumberger adds that electricity produced from all of these sources produces less pollution than petrol, stressing that if all electric cars are recharged overnight then the less-polluting methods of producing electricity, such as wave and wind power, can be used.

Electricity also has the benefit of being widely available, unlike current niche fuels such as the biofuel E85 (bioethanol), and GM executives hope that governments and councils will back the idea with the instillation of recharging points around cities and towns.