Electric Cars Won't Pay Off Soon, Analysts Say

There will be no quick returns on the $5 billion the Obama administration has sunk into the electric car industry, analysts are predicting. In fact, some are predicting that some of the federally subsidized companies could end up like bankrupt solar-panel maker Solyndra, The Washington Post reported.

President Barack Obama had optimistically predicted in 2008 that green cars would create thousands of jobs. However, production and sales have not supported his prediction.

A battery manufacturer in Michigan that received $380 million from the government has just 690 employees, instead of the 3,000 predicted, the Post reported.

A number of other companies have scaled back or closed, and General Motors announced recently that it would fall 38 percent short of its goal of selling 10,000 electric Volt vehicles this year.

“Many in this industry have jumped the gun on how aggressive the growth of electric vehicles will be,” Kevin See, an analyst at Lux Research, told the Post.