The nation that leads the world on energy will be the nation that will lead the world in the 21st century— or at least that’s the clear message emanating from the White House.

Investing in the technology and energy of the future, President Barrack Obama unveiled a $2.4 billion dollar boost for electric vehicle development in the US and urged the industry to help reduce the nation’s reliance on other nations for its energy needs in the form of oil imports. (And increase dependency on Japanese batteries, one asks?)

Innocent and so very green ...

Speeching at the unveiling of the green package, Obama talked about how the German’s were leading the world in solar power and Spain producing 30-percent of its energy from windmills.

The aim of the package is obviously to encourage more green vehicles on the road— there’s a target for a million eco-friendly vehicles on US roads by 2015. Not content in giving the green movement a thrust from the production side alone, President Obama also declared a $7,500 dollar tax credit to consumers willing to buy plug-in vehicles.

Split up into $1.5 billion to manufacturers who produce highly efficient batteries and $500 million for firms that produce other components, this is all about creating future roads with zero-emissions. And maybe some green jobs?

Image by simeon_barkas

Japanese carmakers, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are still going green. All the while, GM and America’s car makers have their hands out.

In separate events -

Nissan announced it was redesigning its Cube subcompact in hopes of moving in on the Japanese fetish for small cars that save on the miles. Nissan will sell the car around the world, not just in Japan as before. North America will see the car in spring of ‘09 ad Europe will see their version later in the year. The price – $14,000ish.

Meanwhile – Honda is debuting a gas-saving drive support system for its hybrid Insight coming out next spring also. With the flip of a switch, the driver can:

1. switch to Econ mode to ease the burden on the engine,
2. extend the time of the “idling stop,” which halts the engine when the vehicle stops,
3. incorporate a function that turns down the air conditioning,
4. boost the efficiency of “regeneration”.

The Insight’s speedometer will indicate fuel conservation – green for high efficiency and blue for high fuel consumption. Problem that those in Japan can identify with – blue is green.