Obama to miss goal of 1 million electric vehicles | WashingtonExaminer.com.
The Obama administration will miss its goal of putting 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by the end of the year, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said.
“We’re going to be a few years after the president’s aspirational goal of the end of 2015, but I think that we are within a few years of reaching that goal,” Moniz told the Detroit News.
That mark, which President Obama had set in 2008, has long been in doubt as electric vehicle sales have lagged expectations. The Electric Drive Transportation Association estimated sales hit roughly 280,000 through 2014, including 120,000 last year. Sales could drop this year since gasoline prices are hovering around $2 per gallon.
120,000 were sold last year, making the installed base 280,000. Assuming they continue to sell at 120,000 per year it will take 6 years to meet Obama’s goal of 1 million electric cars. As the article implies, sales are likely to be down for 2015 but perhaps they will increase after that.
The government should stop subsidizing electric cars and let the market find it’s way. At most, I can see some level of government incentivizing charging stations, although I’m not a fan of that either.
