If you can't wait until next year or 2011 when a number of manufacturers should have plug-in town cars on the market, you can make one now with a DIY kit form Leo Motors.

For $20,000, Leo will send you a conversion kit with a 16-kWh power pack filled with lithium-ion polymer batteries, an electric motor and other hardware. Lithium-polymer batteries tend to have lower energy density than cellular batteries, but you can squeeze the polymer into nooks and crannies.

The company converted a Kia to run on electric power.

When you add it up, it's not cheap. Assume the car goes for $15,000, the total equipment costs runs $35,000. That's for an economy car. At that point, you might as well invest in a Prius, or one of those Think cars from Norway. But you will be one of the first on the block to have one.

“This solution is more than a kit to convert small to midsize cars into electric vehicles,” said Robert Kang, Chairman and CEO of Leo Motors in a prepared statement.