From that forward-thinking French company Venturi, here's Astrolab, the first commercially available solar electric hybrid car in the world. The company says it can go 74mph and has a range of 68 miles, probably long enough for most commutes. The entire top of the vehicle is equipped with photovoltaic cells—3.6 square meters of them—and they store that energy in batteries, so you can still drive it on cloudy days, too.

If you have a long commute, you might want to leave this baby parked out in the sun so it will be all charged up and ready for you to go back home. This is not just some experiment, either, the company plans to ship these vehicles in January, 2008 for 92,000, or about $117K. But think of all the money you'll save on gas. – Charlie White

World's first commercially-available electric-solar hybrid [Gizmag]

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