Gasoline Prices Slow Electric Car Sales to Below Administration Goals

The low price of gasoline is delaying the Obama Administration’s stated goal of reaching one million electric vehicles on American
Cheap gas is hurting electric car sales.
roads by now, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. In the summer of 2008, with gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, Obama, then a candidate, set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, something he reiterated in his 2011 State of the Union address. Of the 250 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads, only 400,000 of them are electric. Sales fell six percent last year when compared to 2014, to about 115,000 vehicles, despite an increasing number offerings, often at sold at steep discounts. But cost remains an issue. Mostly due to the price of batteries, electric and hybrid cars often cost about $8,000 to $10,000 more than an equivalent gasoline-powered car.