daveman
Diamond Member
Electric vehicles fall drastically short of Obama's 1 million goal
Your tax dollars at work. And by "at work", I mean "flushed down the toilet".
"We can replace our dependence on oil with biofuels and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015," Obama said in January 2011.
To get to one million, the White House pinned its hopes on 11 models of electric vehicles - including the Karma. Our CBS News investigation found that six of the 11 -- Ford Focus, Ford Transit Connect, Fisker Nina/Atlantic, Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster and Think City -- either haven't made their first delivery, stopped production, or are already out of business.
Others aren't even close to the government's 2015 projections. For example, 36,000 Fisker Karmas and 505,000 Chevy Volts were supposed to be made. But current projections slash the Karma's 2015 number in half to 18,000 and put the Volt at one-eighth of the goal at 62,000.
(See chart below)
"I think these forecasts were very unrealistic, and history is showing that scaling an automobile company is much more difficult than many of these people thought," Craig Carlson, industry analyst and managing director of Carlson Group, Electric Vehicles, told CBS News.
When told about the CBS News projection that only 300,000 electric vehicles would be on the road instead of the proposed 1 million, the Energy Department's David Sandalow said, "Well, let's hope that we can move faster. And if we don't hit that goal in 2015, let's hit it in 2016."
CBS News pointed out that the Energy Department hoped that Think City would produce 57,000 cars, but only built 263 and went out of business. Ford Transit Connect was supposed to make 4,200 vehicles, but only built 500 and filed for bankruptcy.
To get to one million, the White House pinned its hopes on 11 models of electric vehicles - including the Karma. Our CBS News investigation found that six of the 11 -- Ford Focus, Ford Transit Connect, Fisker Nina/Atlantic, Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster and Think City -- either haven't made their first delivery, stopped production, or are already out of business.
Others aren't even close to the government's 2015 projections. For example, 36,000 Fisker Karmas and 505,000 Chevy Volts were supposed to be made. But current projections slash the Karma's 2015 number in half to 18,000 and put the Volt at one-eighth of the goal at 62,000.
(See chart below)
"I think these forecasts were very unrealistic, and history is showing that scaling an automobile company is much more difficult than many of these people thought," Craig Carlson, industry analyst and managing director of Carlson Group, Electric Vehicles, told CBS News.
When told about the CBS News projection that only 300,000 electric vehicles would be on the road instead of the proposed 1 million, the Energy Department's David Sandalow said, "Well, let's hope that we can move faster. And if we don't hit that goal in 2015, let's hit it in 2016."
CBS News pointed out that the Energy Department hoped that Think City would produce 57,000 cars, but only built 263 and went out of business. Ford Transit Connect was supposed to make 4,200 vehicles, but only built 500 and filed for bankruptcy.
Your tax dollars at work. And by "at work", I mean "flushed down the toilet".
