Oct. 23--You're driving around Kansas City in an electric car and notice its battery is nearly out of power. No problem. You head for the nearest public charging station for a fill-up.

The scenario is closer to reality than you realize. With electric cars soon to hit the market, Kansas City Power & Light plans to have 10 charging stations in place by next summer.

The charging stations are just one example of a push in the area to boost the use of alternative fuels such as electricity and natural gas.

--Kansas City's government, which already has many vehicles that use natural gas, is poised to increase the number of alternative-fuel vehicles in a big way. The city is also looking for ways to make natural-gas fuel available to the public and for services like the tourist trolleys planned for Westport.

--The Kansas City, Kan., School District plans to operate up to 30 hybrid-electric and natural-gas school buses and have its own natural-gas and electric fueling stations.

--The University of Missouri-Kansas City intends to install an electric charging station that will be available to the public. It will also be used to charge the university's first electric truck when it buys it.

--A group is working on developing a corridor of natural-gas fueling stations from Kansas City to St. Louis and in other cities in the region.

The hopes for alternative fuels have ebbed and flowed over the years, but with the approaching debut of electric cars, they now seem to be on the upswing.

Some electric trucks are already available, and the first full-fledged electric cars capable of highway travel are scheduled to roll off the assembly line next year.

They are being tagged as game-changers the U.S. is counting on to reduce pollution and its addiction to imported oil.

"We stand on the threshold of a real revolution in the propulsion of vehicles," Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Co., told an electric-vehicles conference Wednesday.

Particulars a problem

Nagging details need to be handled before alternative fuels can fulfill their roles.

Infrastructure to provide natural gas has been a problem in most of the U.S. It also looms as an issue for electricity.

A $100 million project backed by the U.S. Department of Energy will put 12,750 charging stations in five states: Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. They will test and analyze the usage and charging patterns for electric vehicles.

"We want charging to be available where people work, live and play," said Colin Read, marketing director for Ecotality, a company that makes electric chargers and is the project manager for the study.