Pickens, Musk hope to compete with Prius, Insight, Detroit

The push toward clean energy automobiles has opened the door for small companies to squeak out some valuable market place.

Or at least big-money investors such as oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and PayPal founder Elon Musk think so.

Pickens invested in V-vehicles, which is looking into other energy sources such as natural gas. In his blog, Pickens said 97 percent of U.S. natural gas is produced in the states, and its use produces 30 percent less green house gases than home heating oil.

“As part of our continuing effort to strengthen America's energy independence, I am urging anyone who can - in a residential, a commercial, an agricultural or an industrial setting, to closely investigate shifting from imported oil to propane or natural gas,” he wrote.

Musk’s Tesla Motors and similarly ambitious. He’s looking at making a totally electric seven-passenger car – the Model S - and also a $105,000 electric sports car.

This week, Tesla got a boost of confidence from the U.S. Department of Energy when the government gave $465 million in low-interest loans, which will be used mostly toward constructing the Model S.

“Tesla will use the ATVM loan precisely the way that Congress intended - as the capital needed to build sustainable transport,” Musk said. “We are honored that the U.S. government selected Tesla to be among the first companies to participate in this progressive program.”

The other big loans went to Nissan and Ford, leaving out dozens of other big-name manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda.

Traditional car companies – and the traditional media – are scratching their heads as to why Tesla was chosen for the program.

“Given that Congress has mandated fuel rules that require billions to meet the standard, this is drop-in-the-bucket funding for the major automakers that have been building cars and trucks in the U.S. for decades - but it's an all-out gift to Tesla, the Silicon Valley startup that makes cars for the rich and famous,” Detroit News columnist Manny Lopez wrote Thursday.

Other up-and-coming companies with their sights set on traditional foreign and domestic automakers include Fisker Automotive, Carbon Motors, Zap, Aptera, Bright Automotive, Myers Motors and EV Innovations, according to a Consumers Report source.