When carter was in, yes it was probably about fuel consumption. When clinton was in, it was about emissions. Oil embargo vs. Al Gore.
You can spout electric cars as the ZFC savior but not really, electric bills wouldnt be cheap, and then the power plants would be pumping out more coal and oil to take up the slack of not using gas. but for some reason nuclear plants just weren't being built...
But still I reiterate my point, electric cars just aren't feasible yet, not much is set up for them. How do you handle apartment complexes where parking is a toss up every day, like in every city across the country? How do you handle kids that go off to college and have to park their car in a far lot during the week? What about people that lose their job and live out of their car? You need to have a system in place like a gas station where you can charge the car literally in minutes, and thats just not going to happen with today's power grid and battery technology
The reason solar cars haven't gone anywhere is because you really cant get the needed power from a few square feet of solar paneling. They still do the solar car challenges every year and every year they make improvements, but those cars are nothing but a solar panel with wheels, not something a person could actually drive.