Next generation electric vehicles get $2.4 billion cash injection

clipped from www.energyefficiencynews.com US President Barack Obama has made $2.4 billion available to fund the next generation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and the advanced batteries that power them. He made the announcement during a visit to the Southern California Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center yesterday. The funds, which are part of the President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be divvied up into three parts. “Because these cars of tomorrow require the batteries of tomorrow, I am announcing… a $2 billion competitive grant program… that will spark the manufacturing of the batteries and parts that run these cars, build or upgrade the factories that will produce them,” he said. The Department of Energy (DOE) will make $1.5 billion available in the form of grants to manufacturers of batteries and their components with a further $500 million earmarked for the makers of other components essential to electric vehicles such as electric motors.