Well, not exactly, unless you have the hundred grand to plunk down for a Tesla Roadster. However, as this Wired round-up article shows, there is a lot of incredible technology being developed in the automotive world. Ironically, very little of it is coming from American auto companies who seem to spend their collective energy lobbying to keep the status quo. While these innovators are building cars that are extremely efficient without sacrificing performance, Detroit is killing an energy bill that mandates a feeble standard of 35 MPG, ten years from now.
Is it any wonder that these dinosaurs are bleeding cash? They don’t appear to have any collective understanding of business strategy. While Toyota and Honda innovate almost constantly and own a market Detroit once dominated, all the US makers and their political puppets can do is argue for help from the government in the form of inaction.
Wake up guys- your world is finished.
For example (from the Wired article):

“U.K.-based PML Flightlink put four of its 160-horsepower electric motors in the wheels of a BMW Mini to produce a concept car that shoots from zero to 60 in about four seconds and hits a top speed of 150 miles an hour. The engines also act as brakes, recovering energy that charges a battery and giving the car a range of more than 200 miles. A tiny gasoline motor can be used to recharge the battery for longer trips, on which the car gets 80 miles per gallon.”

“Burning Miscanthus produces only as much carbon dioxide as it removes from the air as it grows, said Heaton, who is
seeking her doctorate in crop sciences. That balance means there is no net effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels,
which is not the case with fossil fuels, she said.”

Gigantic grasses (13′ tall at maturity) are showing great promise as a renewable fuel for generating electricity that is carbon neutral. They grow with little care and are much more efficient burners than other proposed biomass fuels like ethanol and biodeisel from canola oil. A recent presentation from two Illinois researchers is covered in this PDF, Giant Plans for Giant Miscanthus.

We have a giant grass in our front yard that we cut down to the ground at the end of each winter and it will be ten feet tall by the fall. It has spread into a diameter of over three feet and requires zero care from us. I can imagine farmers would jump on this if there was a ready market in the form of grass burning electricity plants available. Farming the grasses requires no specialized equipment- the same harvesters used for sugarcane are used.

It’s obviously not $3.00 or even $4.00 a gallon because we’re hitting those prices nationwide (today the average is around $3.30, in the Bay Area I understand they’re seeing gas over $4.00). So how high does it have to go before people start changing their lifestyle?
The circumference of the earth is 28,000 miles. The average American driver drives 12-15,000 miles each year. Is there a reason why we’re all driving halfway around the planet every year? This is simply insane, especially when you consider that we’re typically alone in our cars during our circumnavigation.
The craziness gets worse when you look at what we drive. Tiny housewives driving Yukons and Escalades are typical in my neighborhood. These things are trucks designed to carry tons of cargo. When you ask someone about why they drive one the answer around here (where there is lots of water) is towing my boat. Yet I know no one who tows their boat more than twice a year. The other answer is ‘I feel safer’ even though the safety record of these things is terrible. The reality is that these kinds of justifications are the fantasy reasons we’re using to justify a selfish act. So, at what point do gas prices burst the bubble?
Tipping points are a nice concept but this one has no simple resolution. The SUVs are not going to disappear, public transport is not going step up, our houses are not going to magically move closer to our workplaces, stores and schools and our suburbs are not going to deal with this. NYC and London can charge drivers during high traffic periods to cut congestion and push people to public transport. However. the average American city has terrible public transport that is associated with poverty or even decent transport that is associated with poverty- the association remains.
We’re not just addicted to gas, our entire society has been reorganized around its ready accessibility. Car ownership is an indicator of class. In the suburb I live in people on bus stops are laborers or disabled people. My neighbors are not going to take a bus to work.
This makes reaching the tipping point problematic. I suspect that even at $6 or $8.00 a gallon people out here are not going to stop driving. They will buy more efficient cars, they may cut down on unneccesary trips but I don’t think they’ll hop on a bus.

The MIT Tech Review covers this new combination of silicon solar technology and targeted mirroring that combines to make practical residential solar panels. As they point out this isn’t rocket science- Soliant utilizes a combination of proven technologies. What it is is usable tech that can be installed by existing installers without a learning curve + a 50% increase in efficiency. Their next generation model promises 88% improvements, bringing their costs below conventional energy sources. Love it.