Obama signed an executive order tasking the DOE with increasing efforts to develop technology for electric and hybrid cars.

Obama’s FY2011 budget proposal would increase funding for vehicle technologies 4.5 percent from the previous year, to roughly $325 million. According to the proposal, this funding will go toward transportation electrification activities. DOE is also requesting to create a new Batteries and Electric Drive Technologies program, which would give electric/hybrid vehicles a dedicated flow of money.

Vice President Joe Biden announced that three new electric vehicle plants and 30 new battery and other electric manufacturing plants will be operating in the U.S. within the next six years.

The announcement came in a memo sent from Biden to Obama on clean energy incentives. In the memo, Biden also wrote that the plants will have the capacity to produce 250,000 electric cars and batteries to produce half a million plug-in hybrid vehicles.

GM Chief Fritz Henderson said that the new Chevy Volt could get at least 230 miles per gallon, while Nissan has been plugging an even more astronomically high number for its all-electric Leaf: 376 mpg. While there have been doubts about these mileage claims -- the Environmental Protection Agency has not confirmed them -- it does illustrate how much private companies have been heeding the government's call to be greener and more fuel efficient.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which the House passed 219-212, includes a provision that will provide development of electric vehicle infrastructure. The secretary of Energy would establish a large-scale vehicle electrification program and a program that will provide financial assistance for manufacturing plug-in electric vehicles. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.

The stimulus bill [PDF] signed by President Obama provides tax credits of up to $7,500 for those who purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles. The existing tax credit for hybrid vehicle purchases remains the same.

$300 million is also included for the government's automobile fleet -- "for capital expenditures and necessary expenses of acquiring motor vehicles with higher fuel economy, including: hybrid vehicles; electric vehicles; and commercially available plug-in hybrid vehicles."