Commissioned in the mid 1970's this cartoon depicted Amectran's concern for the future price of a barrel of oil and the effect this would have on gasoline as the Arab nations manipulated the price of oil. In 1979 the price rose to over $115 per barrel eventually reaching as high as $135 per barrel.
Amectran was already in the process of developing an Electric automobile in anticipation of OPEC's control of oil to the U.S.. 
    Amectran was considering the following... 

      There a 50,000,000 families in the U.S. who own 3 cars or more; 2 of which never travel over 75 miles per day.

This simply means that 100,000,000 cars could be electric. Today's battery technology is already demonstrating some 300 miles per charge and recharge times of 5-15 minutes, as a quick charge, with charging stations popping up all over the country and new battery technology being introduced in 2014. It should be obvious that this technology can only advance as did the twenty-two pound cell phone to the smart phones we have today...with electric cars following close behind as technology moves rapidly forward.
BUT, WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT OUR LITTLE 1970's CARTOON, TODAY, JUNE 7, 2014 IS $2.66 OFF AS THE PRICE IS $102.66 PER BARREL; however today, January 12, 2015 the price has dropped to $46.02 @12:03pm.

The United States imports 9,900,000,000 barrels of oil per day, that comes to $414,200,000,000 per day, or $151.182 Trillion Dollars per year - in 2014, that is almost 9 times our entire national debt (according to the government estimates that our national debt is 17.9 Trillion...believe as you will): The math becomes very simple; if Americans would only realize that every car doesn't have to go 4-600 miles per fill-up; that 100-million of the over 300-million registered cars, from three car families and others whose driving habits are limited, the use of electric cars could provide a savings that would bring the Trillions of U.S. Dollars needed to stabilize our economy. At that rate we could eliminate the national debt in some 4-6 years. All that is needed is to remember that we do not need a sledge-hammer to drive a tack.