Obama's green car plan hits speed bump

-US President Barack Obama's administration is buying fewer hybrid and electric cars and more vehicles that can consume both ethanol and gasoline to meet 2015 environmental goals, favoring older technology over new.

-Obama gave speeches across the US last year touting his twin goals of buying only alternative-fuel vehicles for the US fleet by 2015 and getting 1 million electric vehicles on the country's roads by that year.

-That's looking more difficult as the federal government learns the same lesson that US car consumers have already figured out: it is tough being green. Rather than leading the way, the government has discovered that the high cost of hybrids and electric cars and their lack of availability often mean it makes more sense to buy cars with fuel-efficient conventional engines.

Steeper decline
-The decrease in hybrid- and electric-vehicle buying compares with a 14 per cent decline in overall GSA car and truck buying last year.

-The problem is that buying and driving ethanol fuelled cars solves very little. The GSA, which owns about a third of the federal fleet, said last year that 88 per cent of its alternative-fuel vehicles are capable of using ethanol. Still, ethanol fuel pumps are not very common and car owners, including the federal government, often have to use gasoline instead, said Lindland.

Fueling, charging stations
-There are only about 2,512 ethanol fuel pumps available among the estimated 162,000 fuelling stations that sell gasoline. There are about 6,033 electric charging stations, according to US Department of Energy data.

-The US government, which has given automakers and suppliers money to develop electric-vehicle technologies, last year bought 2,645 hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles, less than five per cent of the 54,843 vehicles it bought, according to the data.

One Prius
-The GSA purchases in fiscal 2011 included 145 General Motors Co (GM) Chevrolet Volts, 12 per cent of Ford Motor Co's Fusion hybrids sold in 2011 and even two-seat electric versions of Daimler AG's Smart car, according to GSA data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

-In the year ended September 30, the US government also bought 1,380 hybrid Fusions, 101 Honda Motor Co Insight hybrids and one Toyota Motor Corp Prius among its alternative fuel vehicle purchases.

Keep Pushing

-Even if the market environment is difficult, the Obama administration does need to keep pushing hybrid and electric car purchases within the federal fleet, Lindland said.

-In 2010, the most-recent data available, the U.S. government's gasoline use rose to a 25-year high, increasing 3.3 percent to 50.3 trillion British thermal units, according to preliminary data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Obama has said he wants to reduce U.S. oil imports, saying promoting greener vehicles is part of that strategy.

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