GM Struggles to Meet Obama Plug-in Hybrid Goal

General Motors admitted that it will struggle to comply with President Obama's goal to have 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the streets of the United States by 2015, a company executive said. Britta Gross, GM's director of global energy systems and infrastructure commercialization, told Reuters that GM's capacity to produce electric cars and more fuel efficient models also depend on a number of factors, such as its suppliers.

"I can tell you we can definitely do the heavy lifting part of that," she said. "We definitely will lift up our end of that. The capacity of General Motors or any large automaker to deploy plug-in vehicles depends on the capacity of suppliers. Among them are battery suppliers. We need more capacity."

Additionally, Gross revealed that in order to produce a million plug-in hybrid vehicles, manufacturers would need five or even more battery manufacturers to produce the battery packs needed to power the cars. And speaking of batteries, the American manufacturer will soon launch the rechargeable Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, a model that was often referred to as the most advanced hybrid ever made. Furthermore, the company also intends to design 14 hybrid models by 2012, Reuters noted.

"There are larger stimulus opportunities that look very promising. There is a lot of support politically for our advanced technology programs," Gross explained.

However, launching so many hybrids doesn't necesarilly mean they will sell well, as the success of such a model on the market depends on a large number of factors, she stated.

"The price of gasoline is one of the factors. The economy is one of the factors. These are new times with new challenges."