Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing

The federal government last funded the green-vehicle technology program in 2007.

Back in 2007 Congress, created the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing federal loan program to allow the government to loan up to $25 billion to car manufacturers. The federal loans were created to help provide the money necessary to retool factories and build more fuel-efficient vehicles, but now some members of Congress are looking to end the program well short of the $25 billion mark.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives reportedly want to cut in half the balance of a U.S. government fund, the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program, that was set aside to help the automotive industry develop more fuel efficient vehicles.

Vice President Joe Biden will be delivering a speech on the economic recovery efforts that have been implemented thus far at the NextEnergy Center in Detroit on Wednesday. The Detroit News is reporting that Biden will be using the occasion to announce the first round of battery research grants from a Sam Abuelsamid

2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery

The other day, Sue Cischke, Ford group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering, said, "If they (the DOE) raise the appropriations from the $25 billion to the $50 billion, we qualify." At the time, we hadn't heard about any plans to increase funding for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Of course, as we wrote when Cischke made those rema