it is challenging to write a book on the subject to write the book that levi tillemann, several requirements necessary. you have to know cars and need a sense of automobile technology you have to know chinese and japanese and 4, you have to have the sense of national politics and international competition. you won't make people who meet those requirements that you do meet them. to get started remember when this was a originally an idea. give us a sense of what made you think, when you started the book, we are going to run out of oil, it will be $500 a barrel the electric car has its energy, today oil is $50 a barrel but nevertheless last year 125 electric cars were sold in the united states so tell us how you got involved with this and what made you decide to write on the subject? >> a lot has changed since i started the project. one thing seems to never change which is the patriots always win the super bowl and we may have different feelings about that. when i started the book in 2008-2009 the inspiration for me to look at electric vehicles came from the meeting at ford motor co.. i was mee

next levi tillemann in conversation with daniel yergin looks at the $2 trillion global automotive industry and the competition between the u.s. japan and china to create the car of future. [inaudible conversations] >> before we start i just want to make some announcements. there are snacks outside if anybody thinks they're going to get hungry in the next hour. i don't see a mad dash. so are you ready? [inaudible conversations] hi even. i'm dan yergin, i'm a director of new america and very pleased to welcome you to this discussion today on the electric car and also very happy to welcome the viewers on c-span to our discussion. .. over period of ten years trying to develop it.