US Government Invests Heavily in Electric Cars

Electric car manufacturers are getting taxpayer dollars by the truck load in a market that for all intents and purposes, doesn't really even exist yet. Where are your tax dollars going? Find out after the jump.

The federal government is spending $11 billion in taxpayer funds as loans to electric car manufacturers that range from established automakers like Ford Motor Company and Nissan to startups like Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors. Between Fisker and Tesla the loans total about a billion dollars. A lot of taxpayer money for two companies that build (or will build) boutique cars that few Americans will ever see in their driveway.

Political dealings may also be afoot in these loan deals. The two startups listed above are both either large Democratic Party donors or are supported and funded by large Democratic Donors. Fisker can be tied to former Vice President and global warming magnate Al Gore through his parternership with Silicon Valley investment firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Other EV manufacturers that are making more affordable electric cars have been declined any share of the federal largesse. The DOE has declined that Gore's involvement had any effect on the loan.

Fisker is planning to use some of the taxpayer funds to purchase an old GM plant to produce a plug-in hybrid codenamed Nina. The plant is located in Wilmington, Delaware, the state that current Vice President Biden represented as a senator.

The government is saying that we will have a million electric cars on the road by 2015 but J.D. Power says that 2018 or even 2020 is a far more realistic time frame to hit that million mark.

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