Obama's Official Cars: Safety Trumps Energy Efficiency for Now

Sometimes reality thwarts the best of intentions, or so President Obama had to explain, again, during a visit to a Charlotte, N.C., manufacturing plant last week.

When the president spoke with workers at Celgard, it's not surprising that he got a warm welcome. The battery component manufacturer -- a player in the green jobs movement -- was the beneficiary of a $49 million federal grant last summer to expand and create jobs.

Since some of that money is to be used to develop advanced battery production for the electric vehicle market, a question – from a supplier who had traveled from Cleveland -- was especially fitting: "The limousines that you drive, electric with Celgard membranes in them sometime soon?"

"I'm going to be honest with you," President Obama answered. It's not that he didn't ask about making his cars hybrids, the president said. "The cars that I'm in are like tanks" and weigh two to or three times what an ordinary car weighs, he said. "So they just couldn't get the performance, in terms of acceleration, using a hybrid engine."

"But . . . the good news is that as part of our overall energy strategy, I have ordered us to triple the federal fleet that is hybrid," he said. "So we are using our purchasing power to help encourage the clean car industry and, hopefully, to get you more business."

It was the last question of the day.