Intel

Can Andy Grove light a fire under America’s sleepy electric car effort?

At the first annual Plug-In 2008 Conference, the former Intel chief called on America to convert ten million of its clunkiest, most gas-hungry SUVs, pickups and minivans into plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PHEVs).

Timeframe? Four years.

If Grove had his way, he'd go on to retrofit the remaining 80 million or so US gas-guzzlers to PHEVs through a combination of conversion and new product -- a move that would cut the nation’s imported oil needs in half.

Big, big, big job.