Clinton was working with the major auto manufacturers to do this years ago. Each of the big four had models designed and tooling up the plants for production was to be subsidized.
Bush came in and killed the program in favor of the yet to materialize hydrogen.
Not really commenting on your appreciation (I don't really know the details of Clinton-Bush-Obama's politiques on electric/hydrogen automobiles) but in the university where I studied some of my department-mates were working on fuel cells and their applications.
One of the most interesting (for me) applications was hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and I could talk with some of the students involved in that research about the current state of the technology. I was also fortunate enough to test one of the vehicles they were using. While I still don't know the technical details, they mentioned that the main reason the technology is not yet available (I think Toyota wants to have an hybrid by the end of 2015) was the lack of investment or the shift of investment to battery powered vehicles.
What was more interesting to me is that the difference between an electric car and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is basically the source of energy used. With that I don't mean the technology if fully ready; as far as I know there are still concerns beyond logistics (for example, temperature problems, security...) but I would say those are part of the novelty of a technology.
Bush came in and killed the program in favor of the yet to materialize hydrogen.