Posted on 03/05/2012 4:37:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
GM has just announced it will be idling the plant (and the 1,300 workers at that plant) where the "game changing" Chevy Volt electric car is -- uh, was -- built. GM says it's only temporary -- until they figure out how to "align production with demand."
It could be a long wait for those workers.
GM projected production of 45,000 Volts this year. That may have been just a little bright-sided. Last year, 7,621 of them found buyers (about 2,400 fewer than the 10,000 GM had hoped for). This past month, just over 1,000 of the $40,000 sort-of electric cars (sort of, because deep inside the thing, there's a gas engine that serves as a sort of carry-it-with-you "range extender"), which means "production" and "demand" have a ways to go before they are, er, aligned.
One reason why, obviously -- though perhaps not to GM -- is that the concept itself was misaligned. Electric (and hybrid-electric) cars exist for one reason: To do an end-run around gasoline. The whole point of the exercise, as a practical matter, is to lower the cost of driving by cutting the driver loose from $4 a gallon fuel. But when it takes $40,000 to do that, it becomes pointless as a practical matter. Yes, it's a clever bit of engineering. I know. I've driven the Volt.
Remarkable. It can operate at steady 60 MPH for several miles (rather than coast for a few seconds, like most hybrids) purely on the strength of its electric motor and batteries. Very cool. But also very expensive -- and that's the point that matters.
The Volt's sticker price is in BMW 3 Series/Lexus GS land. Do people who purchase $40k cars have to worry much about $4 gas?
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
He’s pining for the fjords.
“So “Who Killed the Electric Car” this time?”
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BigTruth.
"He smiled sadly, shaking his head. '. . . People aren’t making anything new anymore.' 'They will. That’s only temporary.'" - Atlas Shrugged
"There is no such thing as a temporary suicide." - Atlas Shrugged
Things are running by the book under this regime - unfortunately.
Look for a taxpayer buyout....
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