The move in the House was made by passing the bill with the legislation on climate-change. The proposal will then go to the Senate before being enacted as a law. A similar bill was rejected by the Senate in 2008.

In the program, car manufactures will be able to get government loans of as much as 80% to cover for the cost of R&D, and production of highly efficient vehicles. The payback is stretched to 25 years with approximately 4% of interest. The company needs to issue security interest for the acquisition of any property using the funds.

Assembling a car using the DOE grant has a requirement of making a car that is 25% more efficient than the current standards. So performance cars, trucks, and SUV is out of the picture.

The bill is also looking into the improvement of the network for EVs and hybrids. Charging stations must be ideally constructed in garages, parking lot, fuel stations, and several stops along the highway.

The first beneficiaries of the loan were Ford, Nissan, and Tesla. Ford received $5.9 billion to develop a compact electric car. Nissan has $1.6 billion which will be used in constructing its Tennessee factory for EV’s. The $465 million received by Tesla is set to be a catalyst for the Tesla Model S in the works right now.

In France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, the average emission of CO2 for all new cars in all categories (SUVs included) is 3.26 tons/year (since the beginning of 2008) based on 12,000 miles/year. While in Japan, the average emission of CO2 is 3.10 tons/year. In the U.S., the average CO2 emission for new cars is a surprising 5.77 tons/year.

When it comes to consumption of fuel, the study found that cars, minivans, and SUVs in the U.S. market consume 10.6 lt/100 km. While European cars consume 5.83 lt/ 100km and Japanese cars consume only 5.79 lt/100km. I suppose American drivers should counter this by reading up on some fuel efficiency tips.

Note that the European CO2 results are affected by the big proportion of compact cars and diesel engines, and the Japanese CO2 average is affected by the large proportion of minicars. While SUVs make up 30% of the total U.S. new car market.

Another factor is the strict CO2-based taxation enforced throughout Europe, which hasn’t been adapted in the U.S. Also, the higher gas prices in Europe also affect the results of the study.

If the U.S. will enforce the fuel-consumption-based taxation on new vehicles and if the gas prices will rise to the same levels as those in Europe, then American will be forced to buy compact-sized cars which emit less CO2 and consumes less gas.

Clearly, being eco-friendly has become more of a necessity nowadays because it not only affects the consumers’ financial stability but also the environment.