Hawai'i likely will receive about 200 Volt electric cars out of the 60,000 General Motors expects to produce for the U.S. market in 2010, according to the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.

David Rolf, HADA's executive director delivered the estimate this week at a state Senate hearing on a bill that calls for a plan to increase electric automobile use in Hawai'i.

"Harnessing the same natural forces that entice visitors to Hawai'i — our trade winds, our plentiful sunshine, and our waves — to produce electricity for transit, home and commercial power would be a dream come true," Rolf said in prepared testimony.

The Volt can travel 40 miles on a plug-in charge, and has a backup flex-fuel engine that runs on petroleum or ethanol. On long drives the flex-fuel engine kicks in and the car's batteries are recharged.