Can Obama jump start the electric car industry?

President Barack Obama chose a beat up factory town in Indiana to announce his $2.4 billion electric vehicle plan two days ago. At first glance, the battery plan looks juicy. But a deeper dive into the particulars raises some questions about why so much of the money will go to production of existing battery models and so little into R&D of battery designs for the future.

Also, the Obama plan appears to strongly back incumbents. Those same incumbents have struggled to make battery technology that is both cost-effective and contains sufficient charge to let electric vehicles run for more than 100 miles per plug-in.