The dollars are flowing to companies large and small. Automotive start ups like Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, companies with little track record and no profits to speak of, have scored nearly $1 billion combined in guaranteed loans. Meanwhile established car companies like Ford and Nissan have been granted $5.9 billion and $1.6 billion respectively to further development of electric vehicles. That’s in addition to the government’s purchase of General Motors at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.

Outside the auto industry we’ve seen companies such as Solyndra, a solar power start up based in Silicon Valley that qualified earlier this year for a $535 million DOE loan guarantee. Prior to the loan guarantee Solyndra had been funded to the tune of $800 million in private venture capital financing. At the beginning of September the DOE also announced over $500 million in grants given mostly to large wind power developers. Since then many large utilities across the country have benefited from over $3 billion in smart grid stimulus awards. More recently the DOE has announced more than $600 million for energy storage projects.

If you look at the entire list of what has been funded so far you’ll see that no technology has been left behind. Electric vehicles, solar, wind, smart grid, geothermal, energy efficiency, energy storage  and carbon capture have all received funding. Thus one of the biggest obstacles to the development of new clean energy technologies has been removed. The collapse of the credit markets and oil prices dried up the investment pot. But the U.S. government has stepped in to fill the vacuum. So companies now have access to the capital they need to develop better batteries, construct manufacturing plants, research future technologies and much more.

With the financing obstacle removed for many companies, the only thing that’s left for companies to do now is to deliver on their promises. Electric car manufacturers have promised affordable vehicles that eliminate (or greatly reduce) the need for gasoline use in day-to-day transportation. Solar producers have promised gigawatts of solar facilities across the deserts of the southwest and rooftops across America. Wind power developers have promised clean, reliable, emission free electricity with very low impact to the environment. Smart grid companies have promised a new age of energy information technologies that will virtually eliminate blackouts and give consumers unprecedented control over their energy use and costs. Geothermal developers have promised a vast supply of emission free, uninterrupted baseload power from deep below the surface of the earth. On top of all the promises we’ve heard many times over the past decades there is also the promise of millions of “green jobs” as a result of a new clean energy economy.

The billions of dollars in play right now may only represent a down payment on future possibilities for clean energy development in the United States. Results are important though. If you have an investor who throws in a million dollars most of the time they want to see some progress before they commit more money. In this case the investors are the American people who’ve heard promises about the benefits of affordable electric vehicles and solar technology for decades. If public support for new energy investment erodes in 2010, politicians, especially ones up for re-election, will get the message and adjust their influence accordingly. That’s why it’s so important that clean energy companies show that they can produce the technologies they have promised, with the benefits that they have promised, at a cost that the majority of the public can afford.

It is clear that we are in a very strong hype cycle with respect to the development of electric cars. Expectations are high and so are the stakes. After all, the company that can perfect a production model electric car probably stands to turn the industry on its head and make tons of money in the process. But a word of caution needs to be sounded as well. Most of the vehicles making the headlines these days are unlikely to find their way into the driveway of an average person anytime soon.

Chevy Volt

General Motors is banking on the Chevy Volt to change the game in the auto industry while turning the fortunes of their company. The promise is that the Volt will go forty miles on a full charge and cost between $30,000 and $40,000. The first models are scheduled to roll off the assembly line in late 2010. GM says the Volt has been designed but the battery pack has not been perfected as of yet. GM engineers have the great challenge of installing a battery pack that can last for at least ten years of use. That’s no easy task. And the proposed price tag (which will likely move higher) is at least $10,000 above what an average person can spend to buy a vehicle.

Telsa Roadster

The Tesla Roadster is a real life production electric car. The Roadster is an all electric, two seat sports car with a price tag over $100,000. The price tag alone makes this vehicle an impractical choice for more than 99% of the American population. It’s also worth noting that Tesla has very little in the way of track record when it comes to mass producing and servicing automobiles. To date only nine cars have been delivered to owners. If the current production rate continues the 1,000 person wait list of celebrities and millionaires will be filled in about 100 years.

Saturn Sky Conversion

For $25,000 Amp Motorworks will convert a Saturn Sky gasoline powered sports car to an all electric vehicle. First you have to buy the Sky for about $27,000 and then you hand the vehicle over to Amp for the conversion. So you’re looking at least $52,000 in costs to get an all electric Sky. Once the vehicle is converted it is highly likely that the manufacturer warranty will be null and void. Amp Motorworks is currently taking orders but none of the conversions have been delivered yet.

Gem Electric Cars

Global Electric Motorcars (a division of Chrysler) is marketing a line of “low-speed” electric vehicles. For about $10,000 you can own one of these vehicles which are currently being manufactured and sold. The catch involved with these vehicles is two-fold. First, the GEM is nothing close to a car, actually resembling a golf cart. Second, the low-speed feature means you will only get up to twenty-five miles per hour. It’s likely that safety related issues will limit this vehicle to gated communities and similarly traffic controlled areas.

A Growing Field of Choices

The number of electric vehicle choices will definitely grow in the coming years. Just about every major auto maker has one at some level of design or development. I also think it is safe to state that we are at least five years away from an electric automobile that can be mass produced while also being economical and practical enough for the average consumer in the U.S. to purchase.

Unfortunately, when anything becomes all the rage it also becomes susceptible to hype and bubbles. I don’t think we have a clean energy bubble yet (we’re not even close to that) but the hype meter is starting to tick up a bit.

The Silicon Valley company called Tesla Motors plans to build a fully electric sports car known as the Tesla Roadster. Tesla Motors has no track record as an auto company. The Roadster been beset by technical problems (specifically with the transmission) and recently went through a reshuffling of the top executives.

To date Tesla Motors has delivered exactly one of their Roadster’s to their CEO Elon Musk. Production models should be coming sometime later this year (maybe?) and even then it is likely that those vehicles will need a transmission replacement within two years.

From the outside looking in it seems to me that Tesla Motors is treading on dangerous ground. They have promised a revolutionary product and even taken deposits to the tune of millions of dollars. Tesla Motors on very dangerous ground in my opinion.

Companies that try to change the paradigm in any industry face an uphill battle. Trying to change the paradigm in the auto industry is an especially risky venture. And if Tesla Motors fails to deliver this vehicle, the repercussions will affect more than just the people who invested $100,000 in a deposit.

Every new, high profile clean energy company that fails will push further scrutiny on other companies in the industry. And the more that this happens the tougher it will be for the companies working on strong ideas to find investors and customers. If Tesla Motors fails then people will say, “Oh, those electric cars can’t work.”

Failure is not something written in stone with respect to the team at Tesla Motors. I believe that they can succeed if they focus on getting the Roadster to market. Unfortunately they already seem to be losing that focus. A news item appeared this week indicating that Tesla is already looking forward to their next line of vehicles.

Tesla Motors is planning to build a gas-electric plug in hybrid. I was a bit taken aback when I saw the news. After all, these folks haven’t demonstrated the ability to mass produce their flagship vehicle. How can they expect to launch a second line when they haven’t gotten the first line right yet?

According to the news item, “The San Carlos, Calif.-based company will produce two basic types of its Whitestar sedan, due toward the end of 2009. One will run completely on batteries. The other will be a range-extended vehicle, or REV, CEO Ze’ev Drori said in an interview. In an REV, a small gas motor recharges the battery pack while the car is being driven.”

I’m inclined to think that this attempt at expanding the product line is one that is meant to entice investors into providing Tesla Motors with a capital infusion. A plug-in hybrid sounds like a much more practical solution. But such a vehicle in a luxury sedan design is a challenge even for major auto companies.

While I would love to see Tesla Motors succeed and revolutionize the industry, they could do more harm than good if they fail to produce a deliverable product that works. Its one thing to undertake an effort like this with private capital. Its another when you fund R&D with deposits from customers.

Now is not the time for speculation about future product lines. Now is the time for Tesla Motors to be very quiet and get down to business perfecting the electric sports car that they’ve been promising the world for eighteen months.