The General Accounting Office (GAO) was requested to examine international electric vehicle development and commercialisation programs. The study encompassed a review of current barriers to widespread electric vehicle implementation, field visits in seven nations and the United States to examine electric vehicle programs and policies, and analyses of electric vehicle effects on economics, energy, and the environment. The purpose of this review was to assist the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, House of Representatives, as it considers policies for an effective federal role in researching, developing, testing, and deploying electric vehicles. Briefly, GAO found the following: The ultimate viability of electric vehicles for widespread transportation cannot now be predicted or ensured. Five major barriers to the immediate introduction of electric vehicles are limitations of current battery technology, gaps in required infrastructure, uncertain safety, uncertain market potential, and high initial purchase price. Extensive efforts to eliminate these barriers are inherently risky and will require substantial money, time, and attention. The U.S. policy toward electric vehicles is fragmented in two ways. First, already limited funds are divided into several small programs across three different federal departments. Second and more importantly, the lack of emphasis on the barriers that can be addressed before a battery breakthrough and that ultimately must be resolved to market a viable vehicle -- namely, issues of infrastructure support, market development, and production -- leaves a gap between state policies mandating electric vehicle markets and federal policies supporting battery technology initiatives. The fragmented U.S. approach, when coupled with other nations' more comprehensive focus on infrastructure, marketing, and production, raises the specter of past U.S. technological successes better commercialised by foreign competitors. The United States may fund the successful development of an advanced battery that other countries could quickly incorporate into marketable, low-cost, performance-tested vehicles. The case of electric vehicles, moreover, could pose a unique risk because of the artificial U.S. market created by state mandates. The potential benefits of introducing electric vehicles are not uniform across all nations. The range and diversity of electric vehicles' economic, energy, and environmental effects suggest that they could not solve all transportation and environmental problems even if they were available immediately. Yet, without comprehensive support, they are not likely to achieve enough success to contribute at all to increasing energy security and decreasing air pollution. (Author/publisher)
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