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Photo Credit: Frank Hebbert

Sure, you see electric cars here and there, but will they ever become as common as SUVs, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, as Priuses? CNN.com reports that electric cars promise zero carbon emissions, running costs of less than one-fourth of that of conventional cars and government incentives like free parking, subsidies and exemption from road tax, yet they aren’t poised to replace conventional vehicles anytime soon. So what gives?

Michael Lock, chief marketing officer at THINK, manufacturer of the world’s best-selling electric car to date, the THINK City car, told CNN, “Some manufacturers are marketing electric cars in the same way as conventional cars, but that creates confusion. They are a niche, and people need to understand their function. They are basically for city driving or commuting into a city, where the round trip is 60 to 80 miles.”

Electric cars have a top speed of approximately 70 miles per hour and can go around 70 miles between charges. Lock continued to explain, “They are not at the stage where they could replace the primary car for many people. The range needs to double or treble and the cost needs to come down before they can be seen as replacing petrol or diesel cars.”

The THINK City car has sold 2,500 models—mostly in the company’s home base of Norway—so far and will begin selling its first cars in the U.S. in December, with 300 cars set to arrive in Indiana. The THINK City costs around $42,000, but the Nissan Leaf, which launches in December and has received 20,000 pre-orders, costs $25,280 after federal tax savings.

The running costs of electric cars are low, with Christina Fell, program manager of CABLED, an electric car trial in the U.K., estimating that most electric car fuel car costs range between a fifth and a quarter of those of conventional cars. But while electric cars have zero emissions on their own, their environmental benefit is dependent on how the electricity that powers them in generated.

Read more about the future of electric cars at CNN.com.