Bail-Out Passes, Includes Plug-In hybrid Tax Credits. Now Bring On the Cars!

Bail-Out Passes, Includes Plug-In hybrid Tax Credits. Now Bring On the Cars!

In case you've been in a deep, dank cave with no wireless connection for the past few hours, the news du jour is that the House has approved the Wall Street rescue measure that includes the original $700-billion in bail-out bucks plus wads of cash for renewable energy, biofuels and energy-efficiency programs.

The $17 billion energy package also includes a plug-in hybrids tax credit plan with an estimated price tag of $1 billion. It won't expire until the auto industry has, collectively, sold 250,000 plug-in cars and trucks that run at least part of the time on all-electric drive from energy stored in rechargeable, on-board batteries.

While none of the major automakers has yet to offer a plug-in, just about all (Honda Motor Co. is a notable exception) are working on them, with General Motor Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt perhaps the best known of the bunch.

Reporters walking the floor of the Paris Auto Show this week, however, are seeing a lot more as European car makers seem to have embraced the idea of electric cars and gas- and diesel-electric hybrids with a fervor usually associated with revival meeting preachers.
"Two years ago nobody  said an electric vehicle was even possible. Today everybody is saying 'We're going to make one,' "  Pitt Moos, Smart USA's marketing manager, told the Los Angeles Times.

The Volt is scheduled to go into production at the end of 2010, and GM has said it expects to build 10,000 the first year.

Daimler, Smart's parent, said said it will have 10,000 Smart EVs on the road by 2012; Mercedes-Benz and BMW both are unveiling luxury hybrid cars in Paris and Daimler's Dieter Zetsche told the Times that his company's technology -- which uses really powerful lithium-in battery packs -- will enable it to "hybridize all of our models in rapid succession."

Whether any of those hybrids will use grid-rechargeable, or plug-in, batteries, remains to be seen, but the lithium-ion technology developed for the two German giants is well-suited for such applications.

Beyond that, France's Renault and its Japanese partner, Nissan, are preparing battery-electric vehicles of their own, as are Subaru, Mitsubishi and India's Tata.

Hybrid leader Toyota Motor Corp. has said it will launch a plug-in hybrid car late next year, probably a version of its popular Prius hybrid, for widespread testing by fleet customers in the U.S. and Japan.

There's more, but you get the idea.

Congress certainly did, and by including plug-in tax credits -- up to $7,500 to help offset the cost of a model, like the Volt, that can travel a long way at highway speed on battery power alone -- has gone a long way toward making them competitive in the marketplace frorm the get-go.

President Bush has said he'll sign the bail out with all the add-ons, ASAP.

That leaves it up to the automakers and battery industry.

The market's developing, now start delivering the cars.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.