Newsflash: Europe is more committed to electric cars than U.S.

Articles — By forcechange on December 18, 2008 1:49 pm

With battery technology being the biggest hurdle to the widespread adoption of electric cars, the state of that industry is of utmost importance to any American attempts to rebuild our auto industry and transition off of oil.

Unfortunately, Bob Kanode, CEO of U.S. battery manufacturer Valence Technology, warned that the U.S. is miles behind Europe on both the will to act, as well as the demand for electric car batteries:

“In Europe, the determination is absolute,” he said. “They have had high energy costs our whole lifetime. Second, they want to decrease their reliance on foreign oil…And third, they are absolutely committed to improving their carbon footprint, both the public and the governments.”

“They are very aggressively going after these markets, and they want them,” he said. “(In the U.S.), the companies aren’t here, the determination isn’t here, and the markets aren’t here…It’s absolutely no comparison.”

Of course, he is right.  Despite our recent spike in focus on clean technology and electric cars, our policies are still weak and the commercial market is practically non-existent.  Whether the public forces our leaders to turn around this sad state of affairs will determine whether our economy and planet continue to suffer, or if we can become competitive and clean.

Hat-tip: GreenTech