It's not surprising that all-electric vehicles and hybrids find themselves on the back-burner of late due largely to the precipitous drop in global oil prices since June of last year, which in turn helped sparked big declines in U.S. diesel and gasoline prices . While some pundits believe that neither consumer nor commercial vehicle users need or want electric-powered cars and trucks even some automaker executives think they are being forced by government regulations, instead of market demand, to make them research and development in the electric propulsion space continues.