McCain proposes electric car contest, with $300M prize Options

[impala454]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5851388.html

PHOENIX — John McCain hopes to solve the country's energy crisis with cold hard cash.

The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting is proposing a $300 million government prize to whomever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.

The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency," McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery today at Fresno State University in California.

McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

The Arizona senator is also proposing stiffer fines for automakers who skirt existing fuel-efficiency standards, as well as incentives to increase use of domestic and foreign alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol.

In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.

"In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure," said excerpts from McCain's prepared text. "From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."

Pretty cool... $300 million will surely reel in some good ideas.

Cueing up all the democrats to flip flop just so they can oppose McCain...

[Testm0nkey]

i know what it says... i dont see what your point is.

my original post still stands

im not making fun of this just because its mccain. im making fun of it because there are already super small, super efficient/powerful hybrid/electric batteries for cars that are years before their time. hey its nice he wants to see even better ones i guess, but like inferia said - its all gimicky.

but as far as pacifying the environmentalists. if that was part of this PR shindig it wasnt that smartest. most environmentalists are probably well versed in EVs and know where the industry is going

[nickluto]

i know what it says... i dont see what your point is.

my original post still stands

im not making fun of this just because its mccain. im making fun of it because there are already super small, super efficient/powerful hybrid/electric batteries for cars that are years before their time. hey its nice he wants to see even better ones i guess, but like inferia said - its all gimicky.

but as far as pacifying the environmentalists. if that was part of this PR shindig it wasnt that smartest. most environmentalists are probably well versed in EVs and know where the industry is going

Wow. Someone actually watched "Who Killed The Electric Car" Sweet. I thought it was only me.

She's right, folks. Sorry to say it, but people who demand the EV1 can drive nearly 100 miles per charge (/day) and be okay. We already have the technology and have had it since the 1990's.


The problem? The infrastructure. Is this bullshit? Hell yes, it is. We need the infrastructure to even start the electric car revolution (which would be awesome).

Shifting our coal-powered electric production to nuclear power would do a shitload more than offering $300M for technology that already exists..... pathetic.

And this is coming from a McCain supporter. I will definitely vote for McCain. No questions asked.

Is this a reach in the dark? Not really. It will get those unshaved liberal hippies on board, yet he will never actually pay the bounty that he promised because it is a "contest". This is ridiculous for the mere fact that no one is going to put their balls to the grindstone to ensure that their technology wins unless they are promised the money ahead of time. No one is going to take a chance on their technology winning because the costs are so high that to even attempt to fulfill half of his promise is going to require hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D. Sorry, that's how it all works. But nice try, though.


Maybe McCain thinks there is a free lunch out there after all.