Friday, January 08, 2010

Lithium and REE: House bill invests $2B in electric vehicles for Postal Service TNR.v, CZX.v, WLC.v, LI.v, RM.v, LMR.v, CLQ.v, SQM, FMC, AVL.to, RES.v


Commercial vehicle fleets will be crucial for EVs adaptation: they provide testing grounds and economics of electric car operations are going straight into the bottom line of this operators - with investment picked up by the government it is almost like printing money.




"We have discussed Lithium and REE investment opportunity with the Big Picture investment approach in our Macro View on Micro Caps...
National governments will make this process even more destructive for margins: they will support by all means national automakers and once success for EVs will be apparent moves in the affordability could be very dramatic. It will be extremely positive for our Next Big Thing and development of EVs' Value Chain as a whole, but shareholders in these companies could wait for a long time to be actually rewarded. Brands which can position itself with pricing power could be the answer: Tesla and Fisker once public could be an example, but they will not be able to achieve economy of scale on the other hand. Once initial excitement for EVs will be settled and sales and profits will matter again you will have to do a very good homework in order to separate winners from the losers."





US Postal Office:


Electrification of Delivery Vehicles





FEDERAL TIMES:



By TIM KAUFFMAN Last Updated: December 18, 2009
The U.S. Postal Service would become the guinea pig for testing 20,000 electric vehicles under House legislation introduced Dec. 17.
If approved, the bill would help the Postal Service green its large mail delivery fleet and jumpstart the nation's electric vehicle industry, said Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., who introduced the legislation along with five cosponsors.
The bill would provide up to $2 billion for an Energy Department program in which vehicle manufacturers would compete for grants to build electric vehicles for testing by the Postal Service.
"Our nation must become a leader in green technologies and leveraging the enormous assets of the USPS provides us with a direct route toward that goal," said Serrano, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service.
The Postal Service maintains the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world with about 221,000 vehicles. Although the Postal Service has been purchasing alternative fuel vehicles and testing some electric drive vehicles, it has held off on replacing the bulk of its petroleum-powered fleet until one technology emerges as the leading replacement.
The bill won immediate support from the American Postal Workers Union, the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
"It will be good for the Postal Service, good for the environment and good for the economy," APWU President William Burrus said."

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