White House, electric-vehicle industry agree on speeding up sales to meet goals

President Barack Obama looks at the Chevrolet Volt
President Barack Obama looks at the Chevrolet Volt

President Obama has been more than adamant about his goal of having 1 million EVs on US roadways by 2015. The administration and a leading industry trade group agree however, that it remains an unlikely mark to hit, unless there is a serious turbo-charge tot he sales effort.

In a one-hour meeting with White House staff and board members from the Electric Drive Transportation, the association requested that an interagency task force be assembled to help manage federal efforts to promote development of plug-in hybrids EVs. The two came to the agreement that persuading state and local governments to electrify their fleets would be crucial to the expansion of the market.

“I don’t think meeting the 2015 goal is going to happen unless we do something different,” association President Brian Wynne said in an interview Wednesday at the associations’ conference here. “It requires the industry and government to collaborate and move faster. The White House is doing its best to move forward, and we’ll do our part.”

A White House spokesman had no comment.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Automotive News