Stimulus Package Delivers $2.4 Billion for Electric Vehicle Projects

March 20, 2009

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President Barack Obama has announced the launch of two major electric vehicle programs that will help meet the president’s goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department of Energy released two competitive solicitations for up to $2 billion in federal funding for electric-vehicle advanced batteries and related drive components, and up to $400 million for transportation electrification demonstration and deployment projects.

On the same day as his announcement, President Obama visited Southern California Edison’s plug-in hybrid and electric car test lab in Pomona, Calif., which includes the “garage of the future”, a grid-connected, solar-powered green car garage.

The utility company created the demonstration facility, called the Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center, with Ford Motor Co. in 2007 to deploy a test fleet of plug-in Ford Escape Hybrid SUVs as part of the project.

The car maker says plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles will play an increasingly important role in transportation, and partnerships with electric utility companies are critical to bringing electric vehicles to market. Earlier this year, Ford announced plans to bring four new electrified vehicles to market by 2012.

Advances in electric-vehicle technologies have been slow at best with the latest announcements indicating low production capacity, lack of funding and late entry into the market. The trend may be changing as major car makers recently announced key expansions of their hybrid offerings with new innovations and improvements for 2009 and beyond.

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Reader Comments

Too bad President Obama is leading us down the path of “unsustainable borrowing”. It’s almost ironic that unsustainable lending is providing the impetus for sustainability programs.

John | March 21st, 2009

you know that we’ve been subsidizing oil and gas for decades, right? And nuclear, which has never made a profit? What has been put into renewable energy and alternative transportation is a drop in the ocean. Just because certain other presidents and cultural habits put us in debt before we finally got around to properly investing in alternative transportation and energy doesn’t mean it’s “unsustainable.”

newphase75 | March 23rd, 2009

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