Obama Is 826,000 Short of His 1 M Electric Car Promise

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

Back in the good old days when President Obama didn't have so many dings on his record, he promised that by 2015 there'd be more than 1 million electric cars on the road.

 

Well, with just days to go, he's only about 826,000 or so cars short of that goal.

 

Instead of 200,000 Nissan Leafs on the road today -- as Obama's Department of Energy predicted in 2011 -- there are less than 70,000.

 

And while Obama forecast 375,000 Chevy Volt sales by 2014, just a bit more than 71,000 have made it off the showroom floor.

 

Fisker, which was supposed to be selling 85,000 electric cars a year by now, went bankrupt last year.

 

Add it up, and there are a grand total of less than 180,000 plug-ins on U.S. roads today. Worldwide, there are only 400,000.

 

It's true that Tesla has been something of a hit, at least among the richest of the rich. But even Tesla is having trouble getting its more modestly priced Model X crossover into production.

 

And so, after shoveling $8 billion in taxpayer money into electric cars, Obama quietly ended up ditching his 1 million goal late last year.