Administration Bets $2.4 Billion on Electric Drive

Administration Bets $2.4 Billion on Electric Drive

The Obama administration, already on record as wanting to have as many as one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, this week announced $2.4 billion in federal grants to spur their development.

The money will be used to make battery chemicals, components or assemble cells into battery packs, and to construct electric vehicle charging grids in five regional test areas.

GM received $105.9 million for the production of battery packs for its Volt all-electric car and another $105 million for construction of factories to produce a second generation of electric vehicles with rear-wheel drive. (The Volt is front-wheel drive.)

GM also got $30.5 million to build 125 Volts for electric utilities and 500 more for other consumers to use as a test fleet.

Compact Power, an affiliate of LG Chemical, received $151.4 million, the largest single grant, for production of the Lithium-Ion cells that will power the Volt.

Ford Motor Company got $30 million to partner with 15 electric utilities and deploy up to 150 plug-in hybrid vehicles, including its popular Escape and the E450, heavy-duty van.

Chrysler got $70 million to develop and deploy 220 plug-in hybrid pickups and minivans. And Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation, which is based in Phoenix and is a partner of Nissan, got $99.8 million to build an electric vehicle charging grid in five regions: the Phoenix-Tucson corridor, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and Tennessee. Nissan will supply up to 5,000 of its new introduced, Leaf all-electric vehicles to these regions for deployment in their government fleets.

These demonstration programs are similar to a partnership Nissan already has with the District of Columbia to build electric vehicle charging stations throughout the Washington metro area and supply as many as 100 all-electric vehicles for the District of Columbias government fleet. Announced in May by DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and senior representatives from Nissan North America and AeroVironment, specialists in battery and charging systems, the demonstration effort is considered to be a key element of the citys commitment to creating cost saving and energy efficient transportation solutions. We want to make a strong statement, for consumers and businesses to realize that this is real, they can make the change from gas to electric, and will not have to worry about where to charge their car,” Mayor Fenty said in announcing the partnership with Nissan.

Some grants were also made to spur development of electric trucks and service vehicles. Californias South Coast Air Quality Management District received $45.4 million to support development of plug-in hybrid trucks and shuttle buses and Arvin Meritor received a $39 million grant for development of hybrid and all-electric drive components for heavy duty trucks.