While I'm at the always-entertaining and inspiring TED conference http://conferences.ted.com/­TED2010 (about the intersection of Technology, Entertainment and Design) in Long Beach, promoting plug-ins and internal combustion retrofits round the clock, I wanted to take a minute to note a few items: a great short GM video and a milestone test drive session of the Chevy Volt.

WATCH "ELECTRIC VEHICLE THOUGHT LEADERS: The Future of Electric Vehicles (2.5 minutes),GM's February 2010 video. CalCars' Felix Kramer gets the first and last quoted comments; includes EV advocate Chelsea Sexton, Electric Power Research Institute's Mark Duvall, California Public Utilities Commission's Mike Peevey, Chevrolet General Manager Jim Campbell.

It's still on the home page at http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/ and its permalinks are http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/­index.php/­videos/­videodirectlink/­165-electric-vehicle-thought-leaders-discuss-the-future-of-evs.html and at http://www.youtube.com/­watch?v=q3r9Os8VCZQ

MY DREAM STARTS TO COME TRUE: I finally got my first drive of a Chevy Volt. GM's Volt Vehicle Line Director Tony Posawatz helped put the car through its paces at the TED2010 event in Long Beach, Feb., 9, 2010 -- which Posawatz described as the first time the vehicle was demoed to non-insider "civilians" (people outside the auto/media/advocacy communities).

The car handled beautifully, peppy with a pretty tight steering wheel. Engineers have done a good job integrating two options for levels of regenerative braking. Lots of new vehicle information going on display screens. And the interior is starting to feel a bit more luxurious. You can download an application to remotely monitor and control aspects of the car for iPhone, Blackberry, Android: look for Onstar Experience.

FOR A PHOTO OF FELIX AND TONY, see http://www.calcars.org/­photos-groups.html .