Business Chief US+CAN Magazine June 2016 | Page 11

RISE OF ELECTRIC CAR MANUFACTURING building a $ 1 billion manufacturing plant in Las Vegas , Nevada . The company plans on releasing its first electronic cars for sale to the public in 2018 .
Rumors abound that Apple is developing an iCar at the company ’ s Sunnyvale campus . While Apple has not confirmed that it is doing so , Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently stated that it is an “ open secret ” that Apple is building an electric car . Ford ’ s Don Butler , the executive director of the company ’ s connected vehicle department has stated that he not only believes Apple is building such a vehicle but that he welcomes the company ’ s competition in this field .
Uber recently made waves by announcing that it has opened a facility in Pennsylvania to research the construction of driverless electric cars . It is clear why the company would make such a move ; providing such cars to the public would cut
costs significantly , thus increasing Uber ’ s bottom line and customer base .
US Government involvement in the electric car industry US President
Barack Obama ’ s interest in energyefficient products and services is well known . During his term as president , the US Department of Energy has begun offering ATVM loans to qualifying car and car parts manufacturers who needed financial assistance to manufacture energy efficient cars . Both Nissan and Tesla have greatly benefited from this program , as it has enabled both companies to increase electronic car manufacturing and boost sales in the US .
President Obama ’ s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge was launched in 2012 with the goal of bringing together America ’ s best scientists , engineers and businesses with the end goal of drastically lowering the cost of buying electronic vehicles . The DOE
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