One reason so many people oppose big gubmnt is that politicians, like everyone else, respond to incentives. This means that many politicians, or at least enough that it's a problem, are susceptible to some sort of influence.
Electric cars might well be one of many examples*. From the Washington Post:
*Other examples might include bailing out the banks and sacrificing bondholders to bolster labour union support in the auto industry.An electric car start-up and its sister company sued the Energy Department on Thursday, claiming Secretary Steven Chu and his agency awarded money to politically favored firms and strung along their firms and others in a “fixed” race for federal funds.
In addition to complaints of cronyism, XP Vehicles and Limnia said they have evidence suggesting the Energy Department improperly shared their patented technology with competing companies that won federal funding.