After last year’s pathetic edition of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the premier American car show is making an attempt to get with the times by adding Electric Avenue, presented by the Dow Chemical Company.

The area will have electric cars from major manufacturers on display, plus information from the suppliers and universities developing the new technologies found in the cars. There will even be a track where attendees can take electric cars for a test drive. The indoor course “winds through natural surroundings,” says the NAIAS web site, which sounds suspiciously like the horrid little track in the basement that they had last year.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Chevy announced its contest to name the greenish-silver paint on the Volt? Well, the contestants have been narrowed from 13,000 to three, and you can vote until 8 a.m. Eastern Time on December 1.

Your choices are:

• The uber-geeky “Veridian Joule”
• The tasty “enviroMINT”
• The painfully punny “EV-ergreen”

Did you submit a name that didn’t make it to the final round? Share your genius in the comments.

Electric vehicle manufacturers have been promising for years that as soon as economies of scale were in place and manufacturing became more efficient, the price of those vehicles would drop. Well, Brammo, Inc., is putting its MSRP where it’s mouth is and dropping the price of its Enertia electric motorcycle a mere six months after introducing it.

The company made a deal with electronics retailer Best Buy to sell the motorcycles on the West Coast, and it must be working out if they feel they can already drop the price by a third. When the bike made its debut over the summer, it retailed for $11,995. These days, that same electric motorcycle is $7,995. And that’s before any federal or state credits for zero-emissions vehicles.

At these prices, you can add the Enertia to your Solstice list.

Chrysler’s ENVI division was responsible for creating electric vehicles like the sporty Dodge Circuit EV we saw at the Detroit Auto Show last year, along with electric minivans and Jeeps.

But fear not, domestic electric car fans. While the ENVI program is no longer a stand-alone entity, the work its done for the past few years will not be forgotten. The program will become part of the normal vehicle development process, with just as many — if not more — people working on the projects, according to the Detroit News.

Chrysler’s new electric vehicle plan, in conjunction with its new partner Fiat,  includes:

• 2010 Dodge Ram two-mode hybrid pickup
• 2011 Dodge Ram plug-in and minivan hybrid – test fleet only
• 2011 (or 2012) Fiat all-electric commercial van