IS IT TRUE: March 4, 2012
IS IT TRUE that in yet another example of why governments should stay out of private business General Motors has now halted production of the Chevy Volt?…that yes this is the same Chevy Volt that President Obama was essentially the celebrity spokesperson for?…that furthermore it is the same Chevy Volt that GM was handed scads of dollars by the government to produce?…that yes this is the same Chevy Volt that was handed award after award by magazines seeking the favor of the Obama Administration for their pandering editorials and awards?…that if it were not for the federal bailout of GM that there would be no Chevy Volt to suspend the production of?…that this is the same Chevy Volt that will get you a $7,500 federal tax subsidy if you actually decide to purchase one for $41,000?
IT IS TRUE that just yesterday on the heels that Volt production will be suspended to balance the inventory that US Representative Michael Kelly stated that “when the market is ready the Volt will not have to be subsidizedâ€?…that even with federal subsidies at record levels on both ends of every Volt transaction that sales have failed to meet projections by nearly 50%?…that the Chevy Volt if it were a stand-alone business as opposed to the most subsidized product in the fleet of a company deemed too big to fail that it would already be known as “Solyndra on Wheelsâ€?…that this is what happens when governments try to force products onto the market before they are ready to meet consumer needs?
IS IT TRUE that California even allows a lone driver of a Chevy Volt to drive in the HOV lanes and avoid traffic jams?…that someday when the Volt has the range to make that worth doing and the power to keep up with the other HOV lane traffic this might be practical?…that today is not that day and Sacramento is just trying to curry favor with the Obama Administration by passing this useless law?…that this makes about as much sense as allowing the three staffers of the CCO all of whom are incapable of dunking a ball to dunk as will?…that such exemptions to rules may sound good but they make no sense and change nothing about day to day life?
IS IT TRUE that someday this country will be filled with electric vehicles and solar panels?…that day will come when the technology meets consumer needs at prices that consumers are willing to pay for the perceived benefits?…that the day that both of these things happens will be further down the road because of the Obama Administrations impotent exercise to force products to market before they are ready?…that this government meddling has probably set the solar and electric vehicle industries back by at least 5 years because money that could have and should have been spent to further develop the products was pumped into premature manufacturing facilities and marketing campaigns for snake oil?…that we must ask just who is the Carnival Barker now?
“Mark Reuss, GM’s North American chief, said in an interview the auto maker remains committed to the Volt and is taking a number of steps to improve lagging sales. GM will launch a new national ad campaign this month that features Volt owners praising the car. It also recently dropped the monthly cost of leasing the vehicles to $350 from $399 for a 36-month lease. In California, new low-emissions versions of the vehicles that qualify for use in the state’s high-occupancy vehicle lanes will be sold to consumers at no extra cost. ‘This technology is here to stay, we have all kinds of people who want to copy it and go after it. We are not re-evaluating anything,’ Mr. Reuss said. ‘The only question here is what the rate of sales will be.'” [Wall Street Journal; 03/02/12] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577257681918603106.html
So, essentially production of the Chevy Volt has been TEMPORARILY halted, with an aggressive sales campaign to follow. Hopefully, American consumers will ween themselves off fossil fuel powered personal vehicles some day.
Actually we agree with what you say and wrote that electric vehicles will be widely adopted some day. That day will come when the needs of the American consumer are met at a price they are willing to pay. No amount of marketing will lead masses of consumers to pay $41,000 for a car that has a range of well under 100 miles and is not very comfortable. If the Volt could actually cruise at 80 mph as the flow of traffic is in the HOV lanes for even 250 miles without needed to be recharged the money would be not be a problem. The day of mass adoption would have been sooner for both EV’s and Solar if not for the black eye that both have gotten as a result of a premature and over-hyped release.
As for the words of the GM chief, what is he supposed to say? There words coming from the Chairmen of GM have had the credibility of the words from the White House for the last 20 years. That was not meant as a complement to either.
Well, in the overall view of things, would you have rather Obama let GM go into bankruptcy? Or were you just taking one more opportunity to paint a negative picture of politics in general and Obama in particular?
Paint a negative picture of government and Obama, for sure.
The private sector waste billions of dollars each and every year, thousands of new products are launched each year and fail miserably. Thousands and thousands of firms go banrupt each year. So I guess there is a whole grass roots movement to make the private sector smaller? Oh wait there isn’t.
BTW and I don’t support electric cars without a support stucture of clean electricity because then they are powered on the electricity generated by coal, which is even dirtier and contributes even more to global warming than oil does.
Jimmy Carter tried to get us off the bottle of hydrocarbons forty years ago and if we had listened we would have accomplished it by now. Solar panels installed on a cumulative area the size of Arizona along with a 21st century electrial grid would supply enough electricity for every home in America with some left over for industry. Oh but no! We need to dig baby dig and drill baby drill! Drink!!
So, if we could’ve accomplished a solar electric grid over the past 35+ years, with our advanced technology and increased critical need, does that mean if we start now, we can accomplish the same goal in say 20 or less years? Or should we continue to wring our hands and do nothing?
We should continue to do research to make both more economically feasible and believe it or not there is plenty of that going on right now. As for solar and wind, it is enabling tech like energy management, invertor technology, and battery storage that will make them cost effective. Those things and a grid that allows consumers to benefit financially from making renewable choices.
Private sector is funded buy private dollars. Where the government has failed over many years and not just the last 3 is in shutting down basic scientific research that has somehow always managed to find its way into successful commercial products. The Obama Administration has pushed way beyond any previous envelopes in rescuing failed businesses and directing investments to projects that are not yet ready like Solyndra and the Volt. As a result solar and electric cars have a tarnished reputation.
By the way there are three big grid level solar projects in the Mojave desert now that are struggling to get going due to accepting government money before they were ready. Two of them were just bought out by a German company for pennies on the dollar and the other is suspended because some artifacts were found when the prep work started. As a result a German company owns a project that was backed by the US Government and we can send our utility bills to Bonn. Buying to soon at premium prices is always a formula for the second owner to get a steal. This time the steal was at the expense of the American taxpayer. Wait for the Solyndra auction soon to see all of that new equipment paid for by taxpayer dollars bought for a song by private industries that hopefully will at least deploy it in this country.
GM would have emerged from bankruptcy with a new owner that has knowledge and experience in the auto business. They would have never shut all of those plants down as the branding is too strong and the production capacity has value. GM would in all likelihood be reporting to Toyota now without the government bailout. Obama prevented these market forces from taking place.
Toyota had and continues to have its own problems.
If the GM branding was so good, how come they dropped Olds and Pontiac brands, among others?
Because they tarnished their own brands to the point that they were not profitable to make. They had to choose what had the highest probability for success in the future. Maybe they chose right and maybe not. We shall see.
You seem to be misinformed. The volt cruises at 80 mph quite easily, and the range is 340mi. It’s only the all electric range that is limited to around 40mi. After that the almost completely silent gasoline generator kicks in to give you 300 more miles. Then you just fill up and drive on. The transition is seamless and automatic. As for the price, with the combined $9,000 tax credits for californians, it comes in at about $32,000. Not that bad for a car with all the luxury appointments and 40mpg (using only gas) and a 99MPGe using only electricity. (real world milage will be somewhere in-between those two. If you add the carpool sticker, great handling, and amazing acceleration, it makes the volt a very good choice which is only going to get better as gas prices get higher. Right now gas is over $4.50 a gal. and climbing. Frankly, my volt can’t get delivered fast enough.
If it is such a deal then why are they suspending production? Lack of demand is the answer. So what you are saying is that the Volt is a gasoline powered car with a electric assist for around town driving only.
So you are on a waiting list for something that is being suspended for no demand? That does not make any sense. As for the Volt, if it is a good deal on its own merit at the price that one pays after all of the incentives it should sell. Why do you think that it hasn’t?
The battery is 50 % of the cost of the car and probably has a life of 5-7 years. Then you get to spend another $20,000+/- for a new battery. These cars are not a good investment. Increase the use of natural gas in trucks and Drill Baby Drill!!
The VOLT is an awesome technological breakthrough. But it needs more R&D to make it revolutionary. It’s a very pricey vehicle to maintain. $20,000 battery replacement does not sound cost effective to me. Neither does the $40K price tag. $7500-9000 cost offset is a nice start, but as a tax payer, it is now a waste of money. Hopefully, the concept stays alive and the engineers work out the negatives.
The engineers will work out the solution to the range and the cost of batteries. Finding the private funding to support such ventures is more difficult now because of the black eye that President Obama’s attempts to be the “car dealer in chief” have given electric vehicles. Someday in America practical ingenuity shall prevail once again.
When is the Kelp car going to come online?
Believing in the wisdom of owning a reliable, sustainable, environmentally friendly electric car is a lot like asking Santa Claus to bring you Christmas presents.
You’re in for a very long wait.
I draw a similar comparison to the Chevrolet Volt and the Obama Administration: Both Failures.
The same goes for Bush. It’s not just Obama, it’s American politics/ business and in many ways the American way going down the drain. Politicians and big buisness are in it for themselves. They only care about more money and power regardless of what they have to destroy to get it.
Then please provide a list of Obama’s failures!
It’s easier if we list his accomplishments since everything else is in the other category….
1. Get elected
The failure list is way too long to even try to print.
JMHO
Well said Purdue Pete, well said.
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