Though nearly two times as many natural gas vehicles will be on the road at year’s end than plug-ins, the federal government is investing heavily in electric technology. Some experts wonder whether the U.S. chose the wrong technology to support.
Four years ago President Barack Obama unveiled his vision of 1 million plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, pumping about $5 billion in federal funding into electric cars.
But then natural gas prices fell to roughly half the price of gasoline. Now a stodgy, undersubsidized horde of natural gas vehicles is catching on with everyday consumers despite a paucity of marketing or fueling infrastructure.
By year-end, 123,600 natural gas vehicles will be on U.S. roads, compared with 65,500 plug-in vehicles, Pike Research’s Smart Transportation practice estimates.
Obamas support of electric vehicles is classic ivory tower liberal ignorance. He lived in a big city and never had to drive more than a few miles for anything, Plus, he can afford an extremely expensive car. So an electric car that can only go 20 miles before it is plugged in makes sense for him. But for anyone who has a significant commute, or even likes to travel occasionally, an electric car makes no sense at all.
Besides, our electric infrastructure couldn’t handle a million plug ins. We will wind up looking like India.
Agenda 21 calls for no private transportation. Electric cars are a step in that direction.
How so? In the U.S., incentives for EV and PHEV vehicles apply to individual as well as fleet customers.
Scizzor, let’s not see monsters where there are merely fools. This subsidy long predates “Agenda 21″ and is mostly based on optimism. we can debate the wisdom of the investment, but we shouldn’t ascribe nonsensical motivations that make no sense in-context.
If only we could harness the power of paranoia…
It has become a function of government to provide seed money to promote the development of new technologies. Argue about whether or not we should be doing that, but don’t be so stupid as to think Obama invented it, or even perfected it.
The job has fallen to the government because developing new tech has become so capital intensive that only very deep pockets can bear the cost.
If you think leaving it all up to market forces is a terrific idea, study up on General Motors and the rail industry. The use of the term ‘market forces’ can be roughly translated to,”I own the best lobbyists in Washington.”
You know how that works, right?
If not, here: Jack Abramoff: The Lobbyist’s Playbook
The US (government) should back NO vehicular technology. There is NO provision for it in the Constitution, and, more to the point, government is a consistently and profligately lousy chooser. Leave it to free markets.
My friend would use his Ford diesel pick up truck to trailer his all electric pick up truck to car shows so he could proudly display the attached bumper sticker,”Uses No Gasoline”.
“By year-end, 123,600 natural gas vehicles will be on U.S. roads, compared with 65,500 plug-in vehicles”
That’s 62,225 plug-ins on the road. 5% will be on the side of the road.
The government doesn’t invest it spends. If it invests, then the prospectus with appropriate disclaimers would be available. The spending was on expensive, generally unaffordable electric cars that do not really fit the basic, reliable transportation market. They met the limited “I got one, see how green I am” and “I’m the only kid on the block with one of these” markets. So the number of buyers seems to be about right.