There is little doubt that the taxpayer rescue of the U.S. auto industry authorized by President Obama in 2009 was key to his re-election, boosting his popularity in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
This President, who engineered direct investment into General Motors and Chrysler in order to keep them whole and in-tact instead of being chopped up, will be more associated with the auto industry than any other U.S. president that has gone before him.
The next four years of the Obama Administration will continue to reverberate through the cars we buy in the form of regulation about emissions, fuel economy, safety and more market penetration of electric vehicles. Here is what to expect: