Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily

Last Thursday, BorgWarner chief executive officer Tim Manganello called out the Obama administration for harming the U.S. automotive industry by focusing so much effort on and sending funds towards electric vehicles (EVs) while "ignoring" other technologies such as clean diesel. Manganello said at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse City, MI:The U.S. government is going a bit too far in trying to dictate the powertrain technologies of the future. It's difficult to compete globally when governments try to pick the winning technologies and the direction changes from administration to administration.
Green Car Advisor reports that Manganello's thoughts were echoed by other auto execs, like BMW's North American CEO Jim O'Donnell and Hyundai America CEO John Krafcik. O'Donnell stated that the administration is "being a bit unfair" to competing technologies and Krafcik knocked the government by remarking that it should "not mandate certain technology solutions" as that process "almost never works." Though many of the remarks are quite harsh, Manganello did provide some evidence to support the claim that diesel technology may be a better immediate solution for the industry. He said that if diesels accounted for just a third of all vehicles, the U.S. could cut back its oil dependency by 1.4 million barrels a day, which far exceeds the amount of crude that we import daily from Saudi Arabia alone.

[Source: Green Car Advisor | Image: Official White House photo by Pete Souza]Is Obama administration hampering auto industry's progress by focusing on EVs? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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