FUTURE ELECTRIC OR DETROIT BOONDOGGLE?

As Plugs and Cars and AutoblogGreen report regularly, the plug-in hybrid is coming, but is DOE really going to get behind it?

Energy Grants Back Plug-in Cars, Ethanol
Sholnn Freeman, January 24, 2007 (The Washington Post)

- The Department of Energy announced yesterday $17 million in grants to support the development of battery technology for plug-in hybrid vehicles and ethanol, two areas in the energy debate where officials in Washington and Detroit are closely aligned.
- The money will be offered as two grants, one for $14 million for the plug-in technology and the other for $3 million for ethanol. The money for battery development is intended to improve the technology's performance. The $3 million in ethanol grants will support engineering advances to improve how flex-fuel engines use the E85 blend…
- Detroit automakers have asked the Bush administration for hundreds of millions of dollars to help develop hybrid cars. They say they need government support to complete research and development into lithium-ion battery technology, a crucial component in bringing the cars to the market. Detroit auto executives, who have pledged to build millions of ethanol-capable vehicles, have also pressed the government to encourage a significant expansion of ethanol fueling stations.
- President Bush announced mandatory increases in the supply of renewable fuels in his State of the Union address last night.

- Foreign automakers are stepping up complaints that U.S. government policy is unfairly backing ethanol and plug-ins at the expense of diesels and traditional gas-electric hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius…
- Dieter Zetsche, chairman of DaimlerChrysler, said vehicles powered by diesel engines get 20 to 30 percent better fuel economy than gasoline-powered cars and cut by 20 percent emissions of carbon dioxide…
- [Alexander Karsner, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy] said in his remarks that major automakers will have to push much harder into new technology to reduce dependence on foreign sources of fuel…He said that advanced technology should be sold to mainstream consumers, not as luxury vehicles or niches in the marketplace. "We need millions of cars on the road," he said.