Conductive should have easily won, based upon rudimentary efficiency and cost considerations. Or maybe they wanted to give an impression they were supporting EV technology, but didn't want the program to succeed. After funding was all spent to demonstrate inductive coupling, the entire project was quietly abandoned. Readers may wish to share their experiences by email, about other projects, where public funds could have been far better invested for public benefit. If you want to bring specific examples to public attention, and have a website describing them, please include its URL, so I can add it as a link on this webpage.
Most worthy projects are an intelligent mix.
New technologies should stand on their merits. Many certainly can extend our capabilities. I'd like to see more of them. But for the right reasons. The same opinion applies to privately funded ventures.