The Rocky Mountain Institute, the think tank that has played a central role in transforming green technology and energy efficiency from a fringe pursuit to a central pillar in industrial and national planning, has spun out a car company. Bright Automotive wants to make plug-in hybrids. The cars will go about 30 miles on a charge and 400 miles or so in all with the help from the gas generator. Overall, the cars will get 100 miles an gallon. The cars will be street and freeway legal. Right now, most of the electric and plug-in cars produced (from companies like Zenn Motors and Miles Automotive) are "limited range, limited speed" vehicles, i.e., they have governors on them that prevent them going faster than 25 or 35 miles per hour. Coming out with a general purpose, economical plug-in has become a goal for companies like Zenn, Miles and Bright, but also General Motors and pretty much every other major car companies except for a few real big diesel fans like Audi. RMI spun the company out in January. It is run by John Waters. He's not the director of "Female Trouble" and "Hairspray." He's a longtime automotive and battery exec. He designed the battery for the EV1 actually, the ill-fated General Motors electric car. Bright will show off its car later this year and try to come to market fairly rapidly.