Electric vehicle sales lag Obama goal as gas prices continue to fall
BPC Staff Jan 20, 2016 | 7:57 pm
1 min read time
245 wordsAll Latest News, Government Policy and Law, TransportationPresident Obama set a national goal to have 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015, but that number stands at about 400,000, Reuters reported.
When Obama made the pitch, gasoline cost nearly $4 a gallon. In many parts of the country, it is under $2 a gallon now, and some economists say prices may fall to close to a buck a gallon when Iran adds oil to the market as sanctions lift.
Electric vehicle sales fell 6 percent last year from 2014, to about 115,000. That happened even though the industry offered 30 plug-in models and deep discounts.
Obama has funneled billions of dollars into the electric vehicle sector. But as he visits Detroit today to brag about the auto industry comeback after a federal bailout, he has less to show for it than he wanted.
That’s not to say the companies have given up on electrics. At the Detroit Auto Show last week, General Motors Co. showed off its new electric Bolt EV, Ford Motor Co. unveiled a new plug-in version of its Ford Fusion, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unveiled its first plug-in hybrid, a version of its new Pacifica minivan.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said last week that electric vehicles “are a difficult sell at $2 a gallon.”
Plug-in vehicles accounted for fewer than 1 percent of the 17.4 million cars and trucks sold last year, according to data from HybridCars.com and Baum & Associates, a Michigan-based market research firm.
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