More on Electric Carmakers' Problems

From the Wall Stret Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122849893450683261.html

US electric and hybrid carmakers have found that their big problems are 1. getting capital when oil prices have fallen sharply and 2. the fact that batteries are mostly manufactured in Japan, South Korea and "elsewhere in Asia." Well, with Lithium available in huge quantities in Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America, perhaps, the USA needs to look at developing these countries as a manufacturing base for batteries and help itself as well as the economies of these countries by setting up manufacturing plants there. I know this is not going to be easy in a recession, but this is something that the USA could make work. It has more experience dealing with the Western Hemisphere than any other country in the world with the possible exception of the erstwhile colonial powers of Spain and Portugal.