U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday evening in a speech to a Joint Session of Congress that America must not abandon its automobile industry. “I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it,” said Obama, alluding to the first ever production automobile, built by the Duryea Motor Company, and the subsequent works of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford .
“As for our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices,” Obama said. “But we are committed to the goal of a re-tooled, re-imagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it.”
“None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don’t do what’s easy. We do what is necessary to move this country forward,” he added.
He went on to say America must re-tool to build all the components needed for the vehicles of the future, including advanced batteries for electric cars. “New plug-in hybrids will roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea,” he cautioned. It should come as no surprise, then, that Obama’s stimulus plan includes billions for U.S.-based battery research and manufacturing.
Obama also pointed to planned improvements for the electrical grid, which will eventually need added capacity if plug-in cars become the norm. “We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country,” he said.
