Posted on 02/16/2012 9:36:48 AM PST by jazusamo
Sixteen months ago, General Electric announced it would place the "largest order in history" for electric cars , to be used by its employees who are issued company cars.
Now, those cars are starting to arrive and be placed with employees.
And where changes are made, personnel policies are sure to follow.
A person inside GE recently forwarded a memo to us that covers some of the nuts and bolts of using the 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. It's from the fleet operations manager for GE Healthcare.
Among the interesting points:
Stand by for shrieking from certain segments of the media about how "GE Forces Employees Into Electric Cars!"
But, more seriously, why is GE pushing the Volt so hard?
First, its fleet managers have likely calculated that over the multi-year lifetime of the Volt, the company will save money on operating costs.
Fleet managers are notoriously hard-nosed spreadsheet jockeys, and are willing to spend more upfront on a car (the 2012 Volt starts at $39,995 before the $7,500 Federal tax credit) if the running costs end up saving money over the total mileage it covers.
The cost of a mile driven on electricity is generally one-third to one-fifth that of a mile driven on gasoline (depending on gasoline and electricity prices and the gas mileage of the comparison vehicle).
So GE likely figures that paying recharging costs will end up saving it money on gasoline over several years.
Second, GE makes electric-car charging stations, and its WattStation ads have been heavily publicized.
For the company, championing electric cars is a good way for employees to get familiar with plug-in vehicles that need to be recharged. In Silicon Valley, they call that "eating your own dogfood."
The GE order could add many thousands of vehicles to Volt sales in 2012, and we suspect that most GE drivers will warm quickly to the smooth, quiet experience of electric propulsion.
One note of concern: The electric-car advocate who sent us the memo was deeply disturbed that all-gasoline running was allowed.
We're not quite so worried about that, since its ability to run on gasoline once the battery pack is depleted is the heart of the Volt's flexibility--no range anxiety.
Since most GE Healthcare employees will use their company cars on fairly predictable daily travels, many of them less than 40 miles, their Volts are likely to spend the vast majority of their miles running on battery power.
After all, Level 2 charging or not, everyone's got a 110-Volt socket somewhere.
For all we know, GE may have a deal with GM's Onstar to get access to the detailed usage data for its Volts--which would allow the company to learn exactly how its employees drive its Volts.
A year hence, we may see a GE press release touting all the gasoline it has displaced by running on grid power. We hope so, anyhow.
We've reproduced the entire text of the memo, addressed to GE Healthcare's "Americas Team," on the next page.
The tax credit is currently $7,500 per vehicle but Obama wants that raised to $10,000 per vehicle. Quite a coincidence upping the tax credit just before GE starts purchasing large numbers of Volts, that would be a huge chunk of taxpayer dollars going to GE.
Everyone should be contacting their representatives in congress to support Rep. Mike Kelly’s bill to kill the $7,500 tax credit.
This tax credit is for all EV’s that qualify and includes the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf.
lol. SO GE wants that $10,000 per car so bad they are buying their own vehicles for their employees.
Since noone is buying them.
Ping.
That’s sure what it looks like. Obama is both a schemer and scammer. :)
Shareholders should consider submitting a Resolution for vote at the next Annual Meeting that objects to this madness and mal-appropriation of corporate assets.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
This can’t include the sales of field service force. If the sales guys for the companies I’ve worked for were forced into 40 mile range vehicles they’d be in the poor house and the companies’ sales would plummet. Likewise field service.
It’s just like the Federal Reserve, buying Treasury debt with money they create. Thing of beauty.
If GE wanted to save money, buy the Honda natural gas converted cars. Bulk natural gas is down to $2.50 per million BTU. Thats equivalent to 7-8 gallons of gasoline.
EV (Electrical Only) range is only 25 to 50 miles, what a joke. That is if it's daylight and not night (and using the headlamps), if your not stopping at streetlights and stopsigns, it's not cold rainy or have a headwind. What a joke.
Saw the bit about "extended range"; that's using gasoline after the battery is used too much. Obviously, the word is getting around that you can't go to far with these cars and something had to be done. So Government motors went back to gasoline.
How Quaint.
Are you confusing GE with GM? Small difference, I agree.
Charging times
120 V: about 10-12 hours (actual charge times may vary)
240 V: about 4 hours (actual charge times may vary)
It basically means you are charging it every day (it owns you) for extremely little in return.
Not Ready for Prime Time.
I have grown to despise both of them. It wasn’t long ago that I loved them both. I have an old Chevy, but I will never buy another one.
After their openly supportive campaign for Obama in 2008, I skip over GE products and now have them on a little lower plane than other Chinese made product. Screw them. They have screwed us.
>>First, its fleet managers have likely calculated that over the multi-year lifetime of the Volt, the company will save money on operating costs.
Pure BS from the Green journalist. Show us the numbers, I’ve run them, and I don’t see them saving any money.
It is much more likely that there is a political calculation between Obama and Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s CEO.
“The tax credit is currently $7,500 per vehicle but Obama wants that raised to $10,000 per vehicle. Quite a coincidence upping the tax credit just before GE starts purchasing large numbers of Volts, that would be a huge chunk of taxpayer dollars going to GE.”
The GOP should fight this credit and only allow it to go to individual taxpayers and not corportations.
There is definitely a political calculation between Immelt and Obama.
Not sure why this is not getting more press. There is an open cabal of crony capitalist fascism which is operating publicly. GE paid 0 taxes. They are buying fleets of Government Motors built government mandated Volts. This sort of thing gets me so upset I have no words. This integration of government and business is going to destroy the US if it hasn’t already happened. This is the greatest threat to freedom. I don’t understand why people are not totally irate over this. Does anyone get how much more dangerous this is than Iran? We can carpet bomb Iran overnight. We are on the precipice of living in Jericho minus the nuclear fallout.
I agree but the tax credit for EV’s should be done away with completely, of course that won’t happen until Obama is gone.
When does the fed.gov start charging use tax on elect vehilces driven on roads. To date, Fed gasoline taxes have been used for this purpose.
The states will jump on this as well, Wash state already has.
Coal powered cars are much cleaner than gasoline powered cars......
You’re right about this being a real threat to our freedom. The leftist press is in the tank for the turkey in the WH, they’re in love with him so they will not cover these type stories.
Wonder how many on the management team are buying Volts for the $10,000 credit and re-selling them to the company?...
You know WITHOUT the credit.?... pocketing the credit?..
Congress should disallow the EV tax credit for the Volt, which is in essence, a Hybrid.
Yep, I live in WA and they just passed a $100 a year fee for EV’s. All the states will eventually do so and that fee will grow as time passes, the feds will do it also when larger numbers are on the highways.
Did you notice the department is GE Healthcare? Affordable Care Act anyone? Btw, they just signed a deal with Microsoft to build the IT infrastructure that will be needed for them to datamine all the medical data.
That wouldn’t be surprising. Last year some dealers took the tax credit then sold the cars to other new and used car dealers, there’ll be more scams I’m sure.
I noticed that, too. Calculating payback isn't rocket science. If it were there, we'd see a lot more fleet sales. This is pure green pandering and the shareholders should call him out on it.
Yep, that GE Healthcare kinda jumped right out at me. Obama and his thugs fingerprints are all over this whole scam, if he’s not defeated this year our country is in real trouble.
Oh and the charging time for that (iffy) 25-50 miles: Charging times 120 V: about 10-12 hours (actual charge times may vary) 240 V: about 4 hours (actual charge times may vary) It basically means you are charging it every day (it owns you) for extremely little in return.How could 25-50 miles be "extremely little in return" when the average driver travels 29 miles per day? http://www.bts.gov/programs/national_household_travel_survey/daily_travel.html
Read my first post again. 25 miles is extremely generous to the Volt. Think of it like MPG ratings on a car: The best conditions, no stopping, no lights, no radio, no heater, tail wind, warm, downhill etc. - you name it. How do you think car manufacturers can claim MPG ratings you will never see?? The same is true for the claimed mileage range on an electric car.
Got Hills, Stop Signs, Traffic lights, Traffic on your way to work? Do you drive in the morning before light or after sunset? Do you live in the North where you would need a heater?
If your work doesn't provide electricity, you better think about real ranges (round trip) under the worst conditions if you think to "Save the Environment without using Gasoline".
What a joke. Big bucks for a tiny car that can hardly make it around a big northern city that regularly has ice, snow and that thing called Heavy Traffic.
LOLARMAOOTF
The MPG test are bogus. A driver follows a profile on a computer screen. The car is on a dynamometer in a room. They sample the exhaust to calculate fuel usage. They do not take into account hills, wheel friction, wind resistance, weight of the driver etc. Flawed to the max. You can only get these MPG if you duplicate the testing environment, ie straight and level.
You say they do not take wind resistance into account, but the bls website says, “The conditions that occur during driving, such as wind drag and inertia are accounted for on the dynamometer.”
Simulations are not the same as real life. The figures are just an estimate. This is why every MPG rating has a disclaimer.
If simulations are just an estimate, then we do not know whether hybrids and gas-powered cars are more fuel-efficient, right? Because mpg tests are done to both types of cars. Has anyone argued that these mpg tests are inaccurate? Has someone come up with an accurate measurement?
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