Over the last few days there has been intense speculation that the US government would reduce or even cancel the successful electric vehicle financial initiative program.
This, together with the direct investment made available by the government for electric vehicle manufacturers, has had a major impact on the US electric vehicle market even if it is still just a fraction of the traditional market at the moment.
However, it seems that the US government is looking to commit around $2 billion towards transportation research to reduce the country's dependence upon petroleum.
What does this mean for electric vehicles? The US government, as we touched on above, has been a significant financial supporter of the EV market, both with initiatives to consumers and government funding to manufacturers.
There was growing concern that the government was looking to reduce this, in light of budget pressures, but it seemed as though President Obama has gone in a very different direction.
While it must be said that not all of the $2 billion to be made available will go on EV research, with some going on natural gas, bio-fuels and hydrogen fuel cells, there is no doubt that electric vehicles will grab a decent share of the funding.
The idea now is to develop current battery technology which would eventually increase electric car journey capacity beyond the 150 miles, per full charge, offered by the new Nissan Leaf.
Battery technology has been left behind While there has been significant investment in electric vehicle technology the fact is that investment in battery technology alone has been left wanting.
Many experts believe that EV manufacturers made a major error in diverting the vast majority of their funding towards the actual cars themselves as opposed to battery technology.
As a consequence battery technology has fallen well behind developments in electric vehicle technology although we are certainly on the verge of a catch-up stage.
It is also interesting to learn that the Chinese government believes that electric vehicles are the way forward and has made significant financial and commercial investments in the sector.
A number of Japanese electric vehicle related companies have been very active in the corporate market, buying up an array of US EV and battery technology companies which have struggled to survive amidst the ongoing economic uncertainty.
Will this make a difference? There is no doubt that a $2 billion investment in the transportation industry, looking for various alternatives to petroleum, will make a significant difference going forward.
The reality is that EVs are now readily available across the US, indeed across the world, and therefore the most developed of alternatives available at the moment.
It would make sense for the US government to focus a significant part of this funding and energy upon the electric vehicle market to give it that final push to hopefully crack the mass market.
Conclusion President Obama has certainly surprised many people with the announcement of a $2 billion investment into alternative transport fuels.
The investment will come from funds raised by oil and gas leases granted by the US government to a variety of commercial companies.
In many ways the petroleum industry will literally be financing alternative sources of energy in the future.
How long this will take is unclear at this moment in time.