I came across this awesome looking project recently. Dale Vince, founder of UK green electricity company ecotricity wants to build a wind-powered sports car.

Before you get carried away and start imagining a Lamborghini Murciélago with a wind turbine strapped to the bonnet, there is an intermediate step.

The car, which is being built by a hand-picked team of specialists, will run on electricity generated from wind power.

When I first started looking at electric cars, I was pretty sceptical. It's all very well in theory but there needs to be an integrated approach (but one very different from that advocated by ACEA, that shifts the burden of CO2 emissions somewhere else). There's no point in switching to electric cars and burning fossil fuels at the power station to run them.

But regular readers of this blog will remember the Greenpeace report that shows how it will be possible to meet the increasing energy needs from electric cars without increasing our carbon footprint if we make an investment in clean renewable energy. So if it was coupled with a big push to renewables, there might just be some substance to Dale's dream of an eco friendly sports car.

© Greenpeace / Xuan Canxiong

And it's not the only initiative I've found out about. Over in the States, rock star Neil Young is trying to convert a gas guzzling Lincoln Continental MK IV into a zero carbon car that will even generate power that you can use at home.

If the detail on the website is a bit sketchy, here's a simple explanation on the Green Car website.

Young's aim is to produce a new kind of engine that can be retrofitted into existing cars like his beloved '59 Lincoln. And if it works, that would be good news for carmakers who would need to make minimal changes to their production lines to start making these cars.

It amazes and inspires me that these two people have a vision and are willing to invest their own money to find a marketable zero emissions car. They haven't asked for a few billion Euros or dollars from their governments - they've used their own cash and the belief that the world is ready for their vision of a zero emissions car.

So what are the car makers waiting for?

With the Tesla Roadster already in production, it seems like finally the electric car is becoming a reality. Porsche is even rumoured to have bought one in order to see what makes it tick.

And we might not all want to buy a luxury electric sports car, but a lot of people complain that green cars are no fun.

So the challenge is on - and if even the carmakers aren't going to accept that challenge I'm sure there are people out there who will prove that it is possible to make a fun green car at a range of prices to suit all pockets.