The Future of Cars Was Hydrogen, Once - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com: "The enthusiasm for electric vehicles keeps growing, but only few years ago the auto industry was betting on hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars.
That led to some sleepless nights for early backers of electric cars — including Alan E. Salzman, the chief executive officer of VantagePoint, a pioneer in green capital venture and an early believer in Tesla, the electric car company.
“We were afraid this was going to be our Segway,” Mr Salzman said, referring to the funky personal transportation device that has failed to achieve much commercial success. “You’re putting how many hundreds of millions of dollars into a golf cart?”
But enthusiasm for hydrogen has ebbed, while the electric vehicle industry is looking increasingly healthy.
“In the span of four years,” Mr. Salzman continued, “we’ve gone from skepticism to the other extreme. From hydrogen to electric vehicles. These are big sea changes.”
Mr. Salzman was speaking at an energy conference hosted by The Financial Times on Thursday in New York City, the same day a Boston-based battery maker, A123, had its initial public offering. The sale was the second-most successful so far this year, with shares surging 50 percent.
Also speaking on the panel were Neil S. Suslak, a managing director at Braemar Energy Ventures, an investor in A123, and David Lincoln, the founder of MD Element Partners, a clean technology venture firm.
Mr. Lincoln said that venture capital funds had about $20 billion to $24 billion to invest in clean technology this year. That amount is dwarfed by government funds, which could reach $200 billion in the clean energy field 2009, thanks to the administration’s push for renewable power.
“Over all, the stimulus is very good, but I do worry about the government skewing the market, picking winners and losers,” Mr. Lincoln said.
One of these winners has been A123, which received $249 million from Department of Energy."
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