Competition Heats Up In Race For Electric Car Dominance

SEOUL, South Korea — Urban visionaries in London and Seoul, two of the world's busiest capital cities, foresee buses gliding through their streets with speed, ease and efficiency _ without emitting the exhaust fumes that scientists say are contributing to global warming. Under Mayor Boris Johnson's vision, London's iconic red double-decker Routemaster buses would be back on the streets _ but powered by electricity, not gasoline. Engineers at South Korea's top-ranked KAIST university are meanwhile working on a novel prototype for an electric vehicle system: one that provides power on the go through induction strips laid into the roadway. Cities _ which house 75 percent of the world's population and generate 80 percent of its pollution _ must take leadership in tackling the problem of polluting emissions, Johnson said Monday in Seoul on the eve of the third C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. "I think as a collective of cities, what we should be doing here in Seoul is agreeing that we are going to stop the endless addiction of mankind to the internal combustion engine," he told reporters.