Neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs, at a glance:

Run on: 110-volt charge.

Charge time: overnight or less.

Distance per charge: 35-50 miles.

Top speed: 25 mph, by federal standard.

Can be driven on: Streets of 35 mph maximum, where authorized by the municipality (in Wisconsin).

Makes include: Miles, ZENN, Columbia Par Car (made in Reedsburg) and Global Electric Motorcar.

Cost range: About $7,000-$19,000.

UNION GROVE - Before long, we could see a little vehicle that looks like a cross between a car and a golf cart, silently roaming the streets.

The village is considering authorizing the use of neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs. Billy Martin, owner of Martin Chrysler, is hoping the measure is adopted so he can begin selling Chrysler's Global Electric Motorcar.

The street-legal little cars cruise around without producing noise or emissions on a 110-volt charge.

"I hope to sell 10 or 12 a year," Martin said. "The first year we might have a boom."

By state law, NEVs are allowed on streets with 35 mph speed limit or less, where a municipality has passed an enabling ordinance. Martin hopes other area cities and villages, one by one, will approve the vehicles.

It's a laborious way to advance the greenest car in existence. If Union Grove adopts an ordinance, Martin said, "I'll go to Waterford next. Then Burlington, Lake Geneva …"

He said NEVs are catching on "all over" and are especially popular in retirement communities in Southern states.

"They're just now starting to flood into other areas," Martin added.

Martin Chrysler, 1422 Main St., will become just the second Wisconsin dealer of the Global Electric Motorcar, or GEM. The models range from two to six seats and have a base price of about $6,800-$12,500.

Wisconsin's other GEM dealer, Hill Automotive in Portage, has carried the cars since 2004. But, except for an initial spurt, sales have been as slow as the cars' 25 mph top speed, salesman John Helmann said.

That's partly because most cities - even Madison - had not authorized NEVs until a recent flurry of legislative activity.

Another problem, Helmann said, is that the GEM is confined to 35 mph streets. For a little more money, a customer can buy a vehicle to drive anywhere.

For that reason, he said people buy a NEV as a second car. "It's not the everyday person who has bought from us," Helmann said. "It's been upper-income people."

He also said electric vehicle sales are slow because there's no big advertising budget to fuel awareness. So far, NEVs have remained largely out of public consciousness.

NEVs get a push

But the small cars did get a recent boost from Gov. Jim Doyle, said Tim Thompson, owner of Green Autos in Janesville. That city approved NEVs in February.

Last year, Janesville's city administration wouldn't even put the issue before the City Council, Thompson said. Previously, state law required each municipality to register and license NEVs, and Janesville wanted no part of that.

But in late 2007, Doyle shifted registration and licensing to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, and Janesville is now on the NEV bandwagon.

"Interest is going up in proportion to the price of gas," said Thompson, whose dealership carries Toronto-based ZENN (Zero Emissions, No Noise) motorcars. For $3.30 worth of electricity, the current price of a gallon of gasoline, an NEV can run about 175 miles, he said.

Thompson also touts the fact that NEVs have no tailpipe emissions. "Some people say you're just shifting emissions from the tailpipe to the smoke stack," he said.

But even when getting electricity from a coal-fired power plant, an NEV slashes overall greenhouse gas emissions. An analysis by the California Energy Commission showed that plug-in electric vehicles cut greenhouse gas emissions by half or more.

Thompson said the figure he has seen is a 77 percent drop. And he noted that if that electricity comes from renewable sources such as solar energy, overall emissions can drop to zero.

Martin also said NEVs would fit well with Union Grove's ongoing effort to revitalize its downtown district. He said, "I feel that's one more thing that (would make) the village unique."