Priming the green-car pump

In a “perfect storm of opportunity,” billions of dollars in federal funding are flowing toward next-generation, made-in-the-U.S. hybrid and electric-vehicle technology.

When Congress passed and the president signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, they opened U.S. Department of Treasury money spigots that in June sent $8 billion in loans to Ford, Nissan, and Tesla. This was the first round of low-cost loans that are being offered by the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which is aimed at helping the U.S. auto industry develop and produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.

As has been reported widely, almost $6 billion is going to Ford to help convert truck plants to car production and support development of the new EcoBoost engine, hybrid technology, and other projects. Nissan is getting $1.6 billion in loans for factories in Tennessee that should start manufacturing electric cars and the lithium-ion batteries to power them by late 2012. And Tesla received $465 million to build production facilities, probably in California, for its planned $50,000 Model S all-electric sedan and a battery-electric drivetrain that it is designing for Daimler's Smart EV.