Published on March 19th, 2009 | by Clayton

President Obama Announces $2.4 Billion in Funding for Electric Vehicles

President Obama announced today that $2.4 billion will be made available for the US-based development of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles.

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The fund is intended to spur growth in research and manufacturing of next-generation plug-in hybrid vehicles and advanced battery componenents for electric cars, while creating tens of thousands of US jobs and reducing US petroleum dependence. It should also help meet the President’s goal of putting one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015.The President made the announcement while visiting Southern California Edison’s Electric Vehicle Center. SCE is one of the largest electric utilities in the country and researches battery-powered and hybrid engines, along with potential impacts of having massive numbers of electric vehicles taking power from conventional utility networks.

This investment will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it will put Americans back to work. It positions American manufacturers on the cutting edge of innovation and solving our energy challenges.

-President Obama

The plan was partially outlined on the Department of Energy’s website:

The Department of Energy is offering up to $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce these highly efficient batteries and their components.
The Department of Energy is offering up to $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce other components needed for electric vehicles, such as electric motors and other components.
The Department of Energy is offering up to $400 million to demonstrate and evaluate Plug-In Hybrids and other electric infrastructure concepts — like truck stop charging station, electric rail, and training for technicians to build and repair electric vehicles.

The money is being made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

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Tags: Batteries, Department of Energy, electric vehicles, hybrids, Obama, Oil, plug-in hybrids

About the Author

Clayton In a past life, Clayton was a professional blogger and editor of Gas 2.0, Important Media’s blog covering the future of sustainable transportation. He was also the Managing Editor for GO Media, the predecessor to Important Media.

Bobby Bowley

I think it is great, better now then never. I will however piss off the satanic oil company’s and the evil powers that be, and thats a good thing.
Bobby Bowley

I think it is great, better now then never. I will however piss off the satanic oil company’s and the evil powers that be, and thats a good thing.
Michael

Now we’re rolling in the right direction.
Michael

Now we’re rolling in the right direction.
John

Well it’s great to see that there is some action finally being taken to improve the air we breathe. Personal motor vehicles are toxic let’s face facts, it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly, and there is an endless source of solar power from the sun, which does not burn fossil fuels to make electricity like some coal powered electricity plants do. This is the area we need to spend more time researching, and why havn’t we done so. Because when you have a huge trillion dollar industry like petroleum it becomes harder to say no to the money that is generated from the sales and government taxes of this toxic product. What do you do? Well hears what we should do. We should provide funding for current mechanics to upskill themselves in the art of vehicle conversion. This takes care of the problem of what we do with all our petrol burners. We simply convert them all to electricity rather than asking people to purchase new hybrids. how can we afford that in times of recession.

Next we tax heavily those who wish to burn petroleum based products which includes industries as well as airlines and personal motor vehicle owners.

What we need is choice and thats something we simply have not been given as consumers because of the huge profits that vehicle manufacturers make along with thier partner in crime – The petrol companies…

You cant have one without the other as no-one would buy petrol powered cars if there was no gas to put in them and no-one would need petrol if they owned electric vehicles. So there you have it. Two massive industries joined at the hip backed by Governments who are too scared to say no to the enormous income they rake in to the coffers from the heavy taxes they impose on petrol in the first place. In New Zealand Government tax on petrol is 40% of the price we pay at the pump. Who is really responsible here? We all are… Research electric vehicles, convert your car or find someone to convert it for you and join the groundswell of people who are making a change to improve our planet and provide a better place for our children to grow up in. At the same time you will save money on travel costs. Imagine the effect it would have on inflation and consumables if the price of transportation were cheaper and more affordable. We would all benefit and so would the planet…

Try this if you doubt this isnt the BIGGEST industry on the planet. Try saying the word PETROL for every car you see on the road. I did this in rush hour traffic and nearly lost my voice…this is a multi trillion dollar industry and dont ever forget it…

Lets start thinking and working on this issue together as citizens of the planet earth rather than individuals in separate countries. Let’s work on this issue together to make OUR planet the best place to live…

More ideas on how to improve our planet coming soon…
- http://thatsgreat! kyle
  
  One Problem there are 9 million parts to build a conventional car and half that to build an ev. also if its not broke don’t fix it. The economy has to deal with the shift from gas to electric and the electric companies need time to catch up. In due time the electric car will come fully into the market because consumers like you want it but to force it into the market is stupid and will do more harm than good. Face it we still need to fly now and then for business and vacations and no one wants to take a 24 hr train ride in coach. There are still plenty of improvements that need to be made thought the world to reduce the dependence on oil. Personal automobiles are a good start.
John

Well it’s great to see that there is some action finally being taken to improve the air we breathe. Personal motor vehicles are toxic let’s face facts, it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly, and there is an endless source of solar power from the sun, which does not burn fossil fuels to make electricity like some coal powered electricity plants do. This is the area we need to spend more time researching, and why havn’t we done so. Because when you have a huge trillion dollar industry like petroleum it becomes harder to say no to the money that is generated from the sales and government taxes of this toxic product. What do you do? Well hears what we should do. We should provide funding for current mechanics to upskill themselves in the art of vehicle conversion. This takes care of the problem of what we do with all our petrol burners. We simply convert them all to electricity rather than asking people to purchase new hybrids. how can we afford that in times of recession.

Next we tax heavily those who wish to burn petroleum based products which includes industries as well as airlines and personal motor vehicle owners.

What we need is choice and thats something we simply have not been given as consumers because of the huge profits that vehicle manufacturers make along with thier partner in crime – The petrol companies…

You cant have one without the other as no-one would buy petrol powered cars if there was no gas to put in them and no-one would need petrol if they owned electric vehicles. So there you have it. Two massive industries joined at the hip backed by Governments who are too scared to say no to the enormous income they rake in to the coffers from the heavy taxes they impose on petrol in the first place. In New Zealand Government tax on petrol is 40% of the price we pay at the pump. Who is really responsible here? We all are… Research electric vehicles, convert your car or find someone to convert it for you and join the groundswell of people who are making a change to improve our planet and provide a better place for our children to grow up in. At the same time you will save money on travel costs. Imagine the effect it would have on inflation and consumables if the price of transportation were cheaper and more affordable. We would all benefit and so would the planet…

Try this if you doubt this isnt the BIGGEST industry on the planet. Try saying the word PETROL for every car you see on the road. I did this in rush hour traffic and nearly lost my voice…this is a multi trillion dollar industry and dont ever forget it…

Lets start thinking and working on this issue together as citizens of the planet earth rather than individuals in separate countries. Let’s work on this issue together to make OUR planet the best place to live…

More ideas on how to improve our planet coming soon…
tim

hey john what kind of car were you sitting in while you were in rush hour traffic. somehow i doubt it was electric powered. and ya you plan is nice in a perfect world but people can hardly pay for stuff they have now, how do force them to convert their cars over/tax the evaliving out of something they need to get to work with. not saying its good, but you cant just get rid of the stuff. its just not that easy.
tim

hey john what kind of car were you sitting in while you were in rush hour traffic. somehow i doubt it was electric powered. and ya you plan is nice in a perfect world but people can hardly pay for stuff they have now, how do force them to convert their cars over/tax the evaliving out of something they need to get to work with. not saying its good, but you cant just get rid of the stuff. its just not that easy.
http://1.homeninja.com Erik

Awesome
http://1.homeninja.com Erik

Awesome
http://wraft.blogspot.com Warren Raftshol

I am afraid that, since Obama is a tool of the satanic elite/oil companies, that this involvement will retard, rather than advance, the development of electric vehicles.
http://wraft.blogspot.com Warren Raftshol

I am afraid that, since Obama is a tool of the satanic elite/oil companies, that this involvement will retard, rather than advance, the development of electric vehicles.
russ

So if you have million of cars pluggin in to the grid, how many more power plants will you need?

They will probably be run from coal and oil or nuclear… so how does this solve anything!

You are still effectively oil dependant on producing the electric to power the cars.

In fact surely its more efficient to produce the electric at source ie in the cars engine rather than having to send the electric over the grid!

Lets wake up here.
russ

So if you have million of cars pluggin in to the grid, how many more power plants will you need?

They will probably be run from coal and oil or nuclear… so how does this solve anything!

You are still effectively oil dependant on producing the electric to power the cars.

In fact surely its more efficient to produce the electric at source ie in the cars engine rather than having to send the electric over the grid!

Lets wake up here.
http://www.blackbayev.com George

It’s about time!

George

blackbayev
http://www.blackbayev.com George

It’s about time!

George

blackbayev
danny

@john

“Well it’s great to see that there is some action finally being taken to improve the air we breathe. Personal motor vehicles are toxic let’s face facts, it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly”

actually after about ’00 or 02′ cars are pretty much clean out of the tail pipe. If you have a fairly new car, made with in the last say 8 years go smell the exhaust. It should be fairly orderless if its not your car is not running as designed.
danny

@john

“Well it’s great to see that there is some action finally being taken to improve the air we breathe. Personal motor vehicles are toxic let’s face facts, it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly”

actually after about ’00 or 02′ cars are pretty much clean out of the tail pipe. If you have a fairly new car, made with in the last say 8 years go smell the exhaust. It should be fairly orderless if its not your car is not running as designed.
john

Russ,so you create new power factories. Energy is a privatized business in the US, more demand = more incentive to build/research additional factories which in turn generate jobs. Things like Nuclear and Hydro powered energy are not a finite resource like oil, think ahead before you go off on a rant about things you clearly don’t understand.
john

Russ,so you create new power factories. Energy is a privatized business in the US, more demand = more incentive to build/research additional factories which in turn generate jobs. Things like Nuclear and Hydro powered energy are not a finite resource like oil, think ahead before you go off on a rant about things you clearly don’t understand.
gs

“it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly”

It takes you about that much time to die in a pool of water for similar reasons. I’ll agree that car/bus/etc. fumes aren’t good, but this isn’t a good example of why.
gs

“it takes 7 – 15 minutes to kill yourself with a vehicle running in your garage so we know the fumes are deadly”

It takes you about that much time to die in a pool of water for similar reasons. I’ll agree that car/bus/etc. fumes aren’t good, but this isn’t a good example of why.
Allch Chcar

$2 billion is hardly a major investment. But for an industry dominated by hobbyist and DIY, it’s a start.

Electric vehicles are more efficient than gasoline even when their powerplant is a(n) hundred miles or more away. Try twice the gas mileage and half the emissions.

Home conversions aren’t the half of it. Electric vehicles can be purposely built more aerodynamic and many times more efficient. Electric motors can be watercooled with a massively smaller air intake than a gasoline car. Keeping the batteries in their operating range is merely a matter of using the little bit of heat they give out to maintain temperature in colder weather.
Allch Chcar

$2 billion is hardly a major investment. But for an industry dominated by hobbyist and DIY, it’s a start.

Electric vehicles are more efficient than gasoline even when their powerplant is a(n) hundred miles or more away. Try twice the gas mileage and half the emissions.

Home conversions aren’t the half of it. Electric vehicles can be purposely built more aerodynamic and many times more efficient. Electric motors can be watercooled with a massively smaller air intake than a gasoline car. Keeping the batteries in their operating range is merely a matter of using the little bit of heat they give out to maintain temperature in colder weather.
Mark

It’s a mixed blessing. Companies started/sustained by government subsidies rarely survive on their own. I’d rather see Obama fund aggressive grid upgrades, conservation and basic R&D. He’s done some of that, but not enough.

I’m more encouraged by the carbon tax proposals. You raise the price of energy and you make all kinds of good things happen in the market place. People conserve… they buy smaller cars, they weatherize their homes, and YES they invest in new technologies. Now that oil is cheap again, I predict the majority of innovative companies discussed on this site will be gone in 1-2 years. Taxing energy is the only real way to restore a balanced ecosystem.
Mark

It’s a mixed blessing. Companies started/sustained by government subsidies rarely survive on their own. I’d rather see Obama fund aggressive grid upgrades, conservation and basic R&D. He’s done some of that, but not enough.

I’m more encouraged by the carbon tax proposals. You raise the price of energy and you make all kinds of good things happen in the market place. People conserve… they buy smaller cars, they weatherize their homes, and YES they invest in new technologies. Now that oil is cheap again, I predict the majority of innovative companies discussed on this site will be gone in 1-2 years. Taxing energy is the only real way to restore a balanced ecosystem.
Mark

Something I forgot…

He’s giving 10-20x the money to Detroit, so they can keep making polluting crap nobody wants to buy. If electrics ever made a dent in their market share, I believe they would just lower the price to force the electrics out of business. They can do that because Uncle Same is letting them operative without a profit.
Mark

Something I forgot…

He’s giving 10-20x the money to Detroit, so they can keep making polluting crap nobody wants to buy. If electrics ever made a dent in their market share, I believe they would just lower the price to force the electrics out of business. They can do that because Uncle Same is letting them operative without a profit.
kyle

2.4 billion? hes given more than that to complete BS projects… i was talking with some wealthy friends i met through (www.affluence.org) and am just appalled at the way obama is spending money
kyle

2.4 billion? hes given more than that to complete BS projects… i was talking with some wealthy friends i met through (www.affluence.org) and am just appalled at the way obama is spending money
Pingback: Anything You Can Do…China Takes on US With $2.2 Billion Funding for Electric Cars : Gas 2.0()
Peter

Instead of eletric(need need power plants= still need oil),Hidrogen (cost to produce + new infrastructure to produce/deliver product and technology not totally secure). What about Biodiesel from algae? easy to make,renualble source, high yeld compare to soy, vegetable oil and other natural oils, can use salt water to be made, very little land use and doesn’t afect food land use, either attached to food production.

Not mensioning the use of raw sewage (farm waste run, human waste) as a fertilizer for algae, that later, will be returned as natural fertilizer as a final by product. Those are reasons enough to look into this process. Less, Co2, low cost to manufacture, every plant can have their own disel genarator, so they don’t need “fossil oil” to make the Biodisel…

The studies are all out there. Look on the web. Professor Fut, from the UH, University of honolulu already holds a patente on the process…

Clean, cheap, renuable and we just have to manufacture biodiesel. The infrastructure for delivery is already in place and we have diesel cars and trucks…What you guys think about?
Peter

Instead of eletric(need need power plants= still need oil),Hidrogen (cost to produce + new infrastructure to produce/deliver product and technology not totally secure). What about Biodiesel from algae? easy to make,renualble source, high yeld compare to soy, vegetable oil and other natural oils, can use salt water to be made, very little land use and doesn’t afect food land use, either attached to food production.

Not mensioning the use of raw sewage (farm waste run, human waste) as a fertilizer for algae, that later, will be returned as natural fertilizer as a final by product. Those are reasons enough to look into this process. Less, Co2, low cost to manufacture, every plant can have their own disel genarator, so they don’t need “fossil oil” to make the Biodisel…

The studies are all out there. Look on the web. Professor Fut, from the UH, University of honolulu already holds a patente on the process…

Clean, cheap, renuable and we just have to manufacture biodiesel. The infrastructure for delivery is already in place and we have diesel cars and trucks…What you guys think about?
ChuckL

The problem is that what is being done is to create a non level playing field on two counts. First is the grant. Second is the increase in taxes to provide for the grants. Both of these make the electric vehicle cost less than reality and the non electric vehicle cost more than reality.

At the turn to the 20th century there were some very good electric cars built and sold. They lost out because they were not as convenient. Most of those reasons have been overcome. Well designed electric cars should be capable of standing on their own merits. Taxing those who can not afford electric vehicles to support the desires of elitists is not reasonable.
ChuckL

The problem is that what is being done is to create a non level playing field on two counts. First is the grant. Second is the increase in taxes to provide for the grants. Both of these make the electric vehicle cost less than reality and the non electric vehicle cost more than reality.

At the turn to the 20th century there were some very good electric cars built and sold. They lost out because they were not as convenient. Most of those reasons have been overcome. Well designed electric cars should be capable of standing on their own merits. Taxing those who can not afford electric vehicles to support the desires of elitists is not reasonable.
http://greatcarcity.org/ Noelia

“Waaaaah electricity comes from burning coal”

This is a stepping stone, a building block, the next step towards renewable energy. We can’t go straight from petrol to hydrogen.
http://greatcarcity.org/ Noelia

“Waaaaah electricity comes from burning coal”

This is a stepping stone, a building block, the next step towards renewable energy. We can’t go straight from petrol to hydrogen.
B

Yeah, electric cars to go along with his increase in the cost of electricity..people won’t be able to charge their ‘new’ cars with the cost of electricity when he’s through, it will be worse than paying $3.00 a gallon for gas..
B

Yeah, electric cars to go along with his increase in the cost of electricity..people won’t be able to charge their ‘new’ cars with the cost of electricity when he’s through, it will be worse than paying $3.00 a gallon for gas..
http://criticalunity.org DavidVSgolliath

Russ??? Solar panels???? HELLO?!

Who killed the electric car? GM did, check out ev1.org – This is RIDICULOUS!
http://criticalunity.org DavidVSgolliath

Russ??? Solar panels???? HELLO?!

Who killed the electric car? GM did, check out ev1.org – This is RIDICULOUS!
http://3daydiet.us drop lbs

War for oil… I mean war in Iraq will cost 2. 7 Trillion. Do you realize how much that is?
http://3daydiet.us drop lbs

War for oil… I mean war in Iraq will cost 2. 7 Trillion. Do you realize how much that is?
http://Web Yervant

I find it intresting that a us resident can not get funded by our tax dollar but forign countries get funded with our tax dollars by billions all I need is $200,000 for 2 all Electric vehicles that do not require plug-in.