If the price on the 2010 Prius is not raised to $40,000, but then the Honda Hybrid will be competing on a equal basis, so maybe this is good news all the way around. Now if the Aptera wants to raise thier price from 27K to 40K, they may end up out of the competition. Looks like the next 2-5 years could prove to be lucrative to the consumer. (if, you have a job).

So, is this still in the $819B "Stimulus Package" bill that the House approved today ?
Does anyone know ?

This is the only thing I could find as of right now:
"The White House-backed legislation includes an estimated $544 billion in federal spending and $275 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses. The totals remained in flux nearly until the final vote, due to official re-estimates and a last-minute addition of $3 billion for mass transit."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090129/ap_on_go_co/obama_economy
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They could cut the cost of the EV even further if the US postal service went this route and eliminated their gas vehicles where they could.

The United States Postal Service is currently the third-largest[7] employer in the United States, after the United States Department of Defense[8] and Wal-Mart.[9] The USPS operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world, with an estimated 260,000 vehicles, the majority of which are the easily identified Chevrolet/Grumman LLV (Long-Life Vehicle), and the newer Ford/Utilimaster FFV (Flex-Fuel Vehicle), originally also referred to as the "CRV" (Carrier Route Vehicle), as shown in the pictures below. In an interview on NPR, a USPS official stated that for every penny increase in the national average price of gasoline, the USPS spends an extra $8 million to fuel its fleet.[citation needed] This implies that the fleet requires some 800 million gallons (3.03 billion liters) of fuel per year, and consumes an estimated fuel budget of $3.2 billion, were the national gasoline price to average $4.00.United States Postal Service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The biggest kick start that we could give the EV / PHEV industry would be to require government fleets to purchase Evs where appropriate. Postal carriers, meter readers, building inspectors etc etc typically drive under 50 miles per day of stop and go driving and do not have huge load requirements.

A truly progessive, forward thinking "stimulus" bill would include requirements/incentives for government and utility fleets. The huge volume of EV purchases could create the "critical mass" to move battery technology forward.

The lower fuel costs and maintenance costs would make the higher purchase price pay off.

Will this apply to the 2011 plug-in Prius? If so the volt is dead.