Two of the biggest makers of electric cars are pushing plans to lift sales: General Motors, aiming for the luxury market with the Cadillac ELR, and Nissan, with a cheaper Leaf.

The Cadillac ELR is a plug-in hybrid luxury coupe based on the Chevrolet Volt.

The midsize 6-passenger S.U.V. is designed specifically for the North American market.

The Japanese automaker cut the price of its base Leaf model by 18 percent and announced other improvement to spur consumer interest in the electric car, which is a cornerstone of Nissan's strategy.

Owners' suggestions figured into many of the changes for the electric car.

Adding the Accord hybrid will require hiring an additional 50 workers and a $23 million investment, a Honda spokesman said.

Although the Obama administration has a stated goal of buying only alternative-technology vehicles for the federal government's fleet of vehicles by 2015, the number of hybrid and electric vehicles bought by the government dropped by a third last year, according to Bloomberg News.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants vehicles to be louder when going less than 18 miles per hour so cyclists and pedestrians can hear them better.

The Nascar season opener will be called the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona and will be run on Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Only 23,461 Chevy Volts were sold last year -- about a third of one percent of all new passenger cars in the United States -- but they may be the harbingers of a shift on roads around the world.