US Govt. to Buy First 100 EVs

It's always a pleasure to do business with a government, regardless on where it is located on the globe. However, that pleasure is even bigger when your government decides not only to endorse your current business plan, but also send a disguised message to the world that your product is good enough for presidents, ministers and other officials.

When EVs were beginning to look for the battered industry like knights in shining armor, about two years ago, the US government pledged to make these cars stick to the ground, into the collective mind and, most importantly, stick on the pavement of governmental parking lots.

Now, two years or so on, the US is getting ready to purchase the first batch of what is hoped to become a wide fleet of federal electric vehicles. For what is worth, that fleet will try and be as bias as it can be, given the current market offerings.

Patrick Davis, a Department of Energy official, confirmed for Autonews that the government is on track of buying, through the General Services Administration (GSA) the first 100 EVs, but failed to go into specifics on the badge the cars will have on them. For now, on the US market there are only two truly viable electric vehicles, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt.

This year's 100 EVs are only the beginning of what President Obama pledged to be a major reduction of the government fleets' carbon footprint. By 2015, promised the president, every single car purchased for federal use will have one type or another of alternative drive-train.