When it comes to promoting electric vehicles as the future of transportation, the federal government has put its money where its mouth is. From bailouts of GM and Chrysler to $2.4 billion in money for EVs and batteries, the Department of Energy is betting big that domestically manufactured EVs and batteries will greatly enhance Detroit's chances at being globally viable.

There have been questions if offering a few thousand people discounted EVs and free charging equipment is a fair use of taxpayer money. This legitimate concern is answered that the automakers, Department of Energy, and city planners need data on driving habits from the early adopters to know how the vehicles are being driven, and in return for the discounted driving, participants agree to have data collected.

However, if establishing a commercial market for plug-in vehicles and all-electric vehicles is the end game, shouldn't the DOE maximize the visibility of EVs by making them available to the largest possible audience through car-share, car rental, and taxi fleets? Potential EV owners can kick the tires by renting a car for a few hours or a day, and since the cars are always returned to the same spot, charging should be relatively simple.

While rental car companies such as Enterprise, which is buying 500 Nissan Leafs, will charge a hefty premium for the EVs, customers won't have the hassle or expense of filling up the cars. Some community car share programs such as CuseCar.org in New York are receiving a small portion of the DOE's investment. Japan is testing electric taxis, but the federal EV programs have missed an opportunity by not sponsoring a similar program in the U.S. Imagine how many people could get a feel for the Volt or Leaf if they were used as cabs in New York or L.A.

Despite some issues about renting EVs, going forward the DOE would maximize public money by making multi-driver programs a strategic part of their EV rollout program. This would include providing subsidized chargers to community car share programs and even to hotels, which could enable tourists to charge rental EVs overnight.

What's not helping is GM's disparaging of EVs and the overblown notion of "range anxiety." The company has done a 180 in the past two years on describing the EV as an electric car. Back then they tried hard to make us believe that despite the gas tank, it was an electric car because the generator only provided power to charge the batteries the drove the vehicle. It seems that GM has changed its propulsion strategy and is now promoting the Volt as a "real car, not an electric car." This is not the way to grow an industry, and expect significant backlash from the EV community to ensue.

John Gartner is a senior analyst at Pike Research, a clean tech research and consulting firm.