Elon Musk said Thursday his luxury electric car company is in compliance with terms of its loans from the federal government, and on schedule to launch two new models by the end of next year.

"We have a lot of cash in the bank," Mr. Musk said in an interview ahead of the scheduled unveiling Thursday evening of a prototype of a third Tesla model, a sport utility vehicle called the Model X, to launch at the end of 2013.

It’s hard to find an energy wonk out there who doesn’t love the idea of electric cars. Most white papers on ending our oil dependency envision a large future role for plug-in vehicles and hybrids in the future. The concept has legions of devoted fans. Back in 2006, the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” became a cult classic, and there’s a sequel coming out later this year — titled, yes, “Revenge of the Electric Car” — about the companies and eccentric inventors racing to develop a viable EV model.

Can white elephants come in green?

President Barack Obama flew to Holland, Mich., on Thursday to attend groundbreaking ceremonies for a new lithium-ion battery plant, which the White House advertised as an example of federal stimulus grants at work and a gateway to a clean-energy future.

Plug-free charging — it’s been the holy grail for cell phone, laptop and gadget makers for years. And now it’s fodder for the plug-in vehicle crew. On Tuesday at the Plug-In 2010 conference in San Jose, Calif., a company called Evatran unveiled its “Plugless Power” electric vehicle charger, which will eventually use “proximity charging” technology to charge up electric vehicles.