In front, sitting members of parliament who enthusiastically listened.President Obama spoke about the challenges of the U.S. energy and material that stands out is the electric car. While, Vice President Biden on a tour of the Ener1 battery facility in Indiana, strengthen statement of president Obama.
"We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo projects of our time," said Obama. "With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015."
While we've heard Obama's one-million-electric-cars-on-the-road-by-2015 statement before, within the last year it was a point of discussion that seemed to disappear into the background—leading many to believe the White House had let go of that goal. But given that EVs enjoy broad bipartisan support, it makes sense for the President to be redoubling his concentration on the topic now.
Hand in hand with electric cars, Obama also set a new goal for the country, challenging Congress to come up with a plan so that "by 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources." Lest you think Obama is only talking about renewables, his message was clear: "Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all—and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen."
On other places, on a tour of the Ener1 battery facility in Indiana, Vice President Biden revealed a bit more detail on how the White House will get one million electric cars on the road by 2015. Biden said that they will push to convert the current $7,500 federal tax credit for electric cars into an instant rebate that everybody could claim at the time of purchase—regardless of tax liability. At this point, the only way you can fully benefit from the tax credit if you purchase an EV yourself is if you have more than $7,500 in tax liability—and even then you have to wait until you get your tax return back.
In addition to the $7,500 instant credit, Biden also revived a proposal that fizzled at the end of last year to provide increased funding for deployment communities. Under the plan up to 30 communities that showed a commitment to advancing plug-in cars would be able to get grants of up to $10 million dollars (total program funds would be capped at $200 million). The grant money would be used bring EVs to market quicker—hopefully resulting in market saturation several times higher than communities without the money. The chosen communities would act as guinea pigs for what strategies work best.
The stimulus plan passed earlier this year set aside $2 billion to jump-start electric-vehicle manufacturing. Out of that total, $1.5 billion is available for U.S. battery manufacturing and $500 million for related technology, such as electric motors.
The Department of Energy is making another $400 million available to build and test the infrastructure needed for plug-in electric vehicles. This includes charging stations and training for technicians in electric vehicles.
The funding will help meet the president's goal of 1 million plug-in vehicles by 2015 and position U.S. companies for the next wave of transportation technology, Obama said.
"Even as our American automakers are undergoing a painful recalibration, they are retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win, because millions of jobs depend on it," Obama said.
Echoing comments he made during his address to Congress last month, Obama said the U.S. lags other countries in plug-in battery technology, which the grant program is designed to address.
Because the company considers it strategic technology, General Motors earlier this year decided to build the battery packs and power controls for its forthcoming Chevy Volt electric sedan in-house. Battery companies A123 Systems and Ener1 have already applied for DOE loans and are expected to seek participation in the $2 billion battery manufacturing grant program.
"Show us that your idea or your company is best-suited to meet America's challenges, and we will give you a chance to prove it," Obama said, addressing electric-vehicle companies. "Every company that wants a shot at these tax dollars has to prove their worth."
To spur demand for electric vehicles, the stimulus act gives consumers a federal tax credit worth up $7,500 for the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles.
But executives at U.S. auto companies have voiced concern over the ability of the industry to supply enough batteries for an oncoming wave of plug-in electric sedans. Creating the capacity for hundreds of thousands of plug-in passenger cars in two or three years requires big investments today, Charles Gassenheimer, the CEO of Ener1 said on Tuesday.
"Demand is not the issue. It's the ability to supply," he said. "You still need to make the investments in the platforms today. Otherwise, you miss the window of opportunity."
End the Handouts to Big Oil
And, in an act that drew what seemed to be highly partisan laughter and applause, Obama said he wanted the country to pay for this renewed push by cutting the handouts to oil companies. "I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies," he said. "I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s."
According to the Detroit News, last night's elevation of the electric car to State of the Union prowess was just the beginning of a broad push to increase funding for their saturation of the market. The new plan calls for increasing funding for next generation clean energy technologies to $8 billion—up from its current $6 billion. While not all of that will go to electric car research, development and incentives, the White House on Tuesday indicated a significant portion of it would be tagged for them.
Thus, it is reasonable that finally, President Barack Obama on Thursday launched a $2.4 billion program to boost development of plug-in electric vehicles in the U.S., including grants to finance domestic production of auto batteries.
source= plugincars and news.cnet
