Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced $2.4 billion in new grants for electric vehicle developments, which will come from the $787 billion in stimulus funds.
"We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad or we can create them here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity," Obama said on the second day of a campaign-style swing in California.
He set a target of putting a million of the environmentally friendly vehicles on US roads by 2015.
SLIDESHOW: Obama tours the Southern California Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center
But that doesn't compare favorably to plans by some other, smaller countries. Here at HuffPost Green, we marveled at Spain's electric vehicle program just yesterday -- that country, whose population isn't quite one-sixth the size of ours -- is shooting for a million electric vehicles by 2012, in addition to pilot infrastructure programs in three major cities.
Obama further detailed the United States' lack of leadership in new technologies:
"Germany is leading the world in solar power," he said.
"Spain generates almost 30 percent of its power by harnessing the wind, while we manage less than one percent and Japan is producing the batteries that currently power American hybrid cars."
What do you think?