Obama critizes McCain's $300m battery prize
As expected, presidential hopeful John McCain outlined a plan yesterday which would offer a $300 million cash prize to the first company able to build a better automotive battery. The proposal is part of an effort to reduce the nation's petroleum usage, in this case, by furthering the development of electric cars. In what would must be the least shocking news of the day, McCain's rival for the White House, Barack Obama, isn't in favor of the Arizona Senator's plan, calling it a "gimmick" and suggesting that his plan to force automakers into a 50 mile per gallon fleet average by 2027 would be more effective. One thing is certain: whomever wins the presidential election has plans to make drastic changes to the automotive sector with the express goal of reducing the nation's dependence on oil. What path that may take, though, remains to be seen and will likely depend on which candidate placed in office. It should be rather interesting to watch it all unfold.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Keat 7:37PM (6/24/2008)
50 mpg?! are you kidding me?? Obama is going to destroy the U.S. automakers. I like McCain's plan better, give them money for doing the right thing instead of forcing them. Last time I checked, we have a capitalist society.
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Sergio 9:32PM (6/24/2008)
Good one!
Dan 9:34PM (6/24/2008)
Nonsense. The decades of work by tens of thousands of engineers who haven't come close to 50mpg in a mainstream vehicle were just thinking inside the outdated box of thermodynamic laws and materials that actually exist.
They just need the hope and change of a inspirational public figure whose great ideas aren't shackled by knowledge of what he speaks of.
tankd0g 9:52PM (6/24/2008)
LOL the myth of capitalism hard at work. Corporate charity is the only thing keeping it afloat in America.
theo 9:59PM (6/24/2008)
Haven't come close to 50 MPG in a mainstream vehicle? The 1993 Geo Metro XFI returned 55-60 mpg... according to AUTOBLOG.
Where have you been the past 15 years?
Dan 10:05PM (6/24/2008)
Tell me again how mainstream a 1600 lb coffin that barely passed the marginal safety requirements of 15 years ago is..
While you're at it maybe you can tell me how EPA ratings of 38/45 (manual) and 31/36 (auto) are 55-60 mpg....
TwinTurboVR4 11:04PM (6/24/2008)
in typical democrat fashion Obama spends more time criticising than coming up with solutions
theo 12:52AM (6/25/2008)
"The aforementioned Metro XFI is powered by an anemic 1.0L three-cylinder engine producing just 49 hp, but it returns between 55 and 60 mpg." That was written by John Neff.
So, yes, using current materials and adhering to the laws of thermodynamics, GM (of all companies) was able to produce a car that hit those figures. Fifteen years ago. Honda's CRX HF also got 50 mpg highway, 20 years ago.
I'm not saying it's what I'd want to drive, but it certainly isn't outside the bounds of physics, dude.
tina 1:02AM (6/25/2008)
McCain is a COMMUNIST!
If he really believed in the AMERICAN way, he would let the MARKETPLACE determine the products and services that come to market.
The people and companies who develop a breakthrough battery will make BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars on THEIR OWN. They don't need a government handout. That's the kind of thing they do in Communist China and the Soviet Union.
Boo on McCain: Panderer-in-Chief.
RSR 1:27AM (6/25/2008)
Geo Metro and Honda CRX may have achieved the mileage some of you talk about, but it does not pass the current safety requirements. So it's pointless to keep talking about how we had the technology back then. If they sold those vehicles as new models now (if somehow it's legally allowed), all the safety advocates would cry out how dangerous they are. So get real now.
doc b 2:24AM (6/25/2008)
I hate stupid online arguments so only facts, no editorializing:
1. Prior to the oil embargo (1973), US average fuel ecomomy was 14mpg.
2. CAFE regulations proposed to double that by 1985 to 27.5 mpg. This move was widely criticized and called impossible by every automaker.
3. Automakers did it (for the most part, some chose to pay the fines, particularly high end sports car manufacturers) and in doing so created engines so efficient that oil prices were driven down for two decades. It's also possible that oil prices themselves drove consumers to smaller more efficient cars. (probably both happened...who knows?)
4. All of the gains in efficiency learned after the embargo can go one of two ways. Use it to make a higher mpg car or more powerful engines. We've been driving our more powerful engines around in huge cars and now have an addiction.
Ok, now the editorial:
We are (for the most part) having intelligent discussions and even disagreements on the best way to cut our foreign oil addiction and move to alternative sources of energy. Remember how we were having these discussions the last 8-16 years, we weren't. Improving our fuel economy will happen, our our country will cease to exist.
It's American and Democratic to disagree. We all love cars. Lets not be ignorant, juvenile jackasses in our discussion on the politics of cars and car makers.
By the way....I have an Audi RS4 (13 mpg), and I look forward to future vehicles like the Volt, the Fisker Karma, and the Honda Clarity.
Cameron 2:23AM (6/25/2008)
I'm surprised someone hasn't mentioned that McCain's three economic advisers all have their hand in the cookie jar of corporate greed, having helped craft the Enron loophole that allowed CEOs to fleece hard working Americans blind, and the lack of government regulation of online markets that allows the oil speculators to drive up prices in the first place.
Then McCain has the audacity to go out in public and blame the oil speculators for driving up prices!
Mirko 2:50AM (6/25/2008)
@RSR
Geo Metro and Honda CRX may have achieved the mileage some of you talk about, but it does not pass the current safety requirements.
BMW has the 318d in Europe, which gets a 50 mpg rating. The 3-series does pass the current safety requirements. A 520d gets a 46 mpg rating. Both are cheaper than the 6-cylinder gassers that serve as "entry level" BMWs in the US lineup.
bakka 2:58AM (6/25/2008)
Google Renault Vesta 2.
500 10:42AM (6/25/2008)
doc b, what you miss is that people for the most part simply switched from 14 mpg cars to 14 mpg SUV's and pickup trucks.
Frank 11:41AM (6/25/2008)
We shouldn't be forcing manufacturers to do anything - clearly market demand is more efficient (look at current truck production levels) at swaying automakers. With gas prices as high as they are product offerings will be much more reflective of the reality of permanent $4 gas - no need for government interference - they tend to mess things up - SS, education, and medicare anyone?
Injun Joe 1:20PM (6/25/2008)
This response is directed to "Cary:"
Calm down! Just because you don't agree with the man's (Obama) politics, or the man himself, doesn't mean you have to go after him with a stick.
In this case McCain came up with one proposal and Obama came up with another. Ideally, the automakers should extrapolate the best of both ideas and move forward from there.
And in reality, these types of technologies and capabilities, among others, should have been incorporated into cars a long time ago. It's really a shame that we have, once again, allowed ourselves to fall into the the trap of gluttony and irresponsibility.
Perhaps we'll learn our lesson someday. And hopefully long before it's too late.
But then, I'm not going to hold my breath either.
PiCASSO 1:33PM (6/25/2008)
Mirko: I'm not sure where you are getting your figures for these turbo-diesel BMWs, and if it is urban, city, or combined. Secondly, understand that the MPG figure in Europe is different from MPG here in United States. 1 UK Gallon = 1.2 US Gallons. Therefore 50 UK MPG = 42 US MPG. Please speak apples to apples.
baffledu2 7:41PM (6/24/2008)
Yup, make the world's automakers the whipping boys for over three decades of denial. They are so ahead of the pandering politicians it is ludicrous. The first one of these idiot candidates that pulls a J.F.K. and simply says we are going to a hydrogen future by the end of the dedcade gets my vote. To this point neither one has a clue!
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rouse42 7:54PM (6/24/2008)
obama's as dumb as GWB
check out the youtube video where he says, he's been to fifty.......seven states now with 1 more to go.