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 ...
They already are, they are idling the plant.
be a long while before the available inventory is sold through.
hell even Obama is waiting to buy one!
I am sure the dealers are breathing a breath of fresh air. GM has a tendency of forcing things on them to inflate their numbers.
So, they finally pulled the plug. Big frikkin’ surprise.
Hey... making them into fish tanks might not be such a bad idea....
The Corvair was way more fun than the Volt, heck even the Fiero was....
RE: So, they finally pulled the plug. Big frikkin’ surprise.
Well, it isn’t permanent they say. It’s a “temporary” idling of the plant.
First Prize? Why, a Chevy Volt, of course!
Second Prize? That would be TWO Chevy Volts
(Third prize would be TWO Chevy Volts, and a dinner with Kathleen Sebelius.)
.
0 demand = 0 production...alignment complete.
The people have spoken, and Government Motors (finally) is listening to them instead of the anti-American Marxist usurper who currently occupies the White House.
Two observations:
1) gm has been “aligning production with demand” for over 100 years
1) closing the plant has “aligned production with demand
So “Who Killed the Electric Car” this time?
Lol.
Hey. I need a better cell phone battery. Maybe they can strip the batteries out of the cars and mount them on cell phones.
Might be kind of big to carry in your pocket, though.
RE: So “Who Killed the Electric Car” this time?
GM insists it’s not dead, just in a coma.
Reality. Funny thing about industry, technology, and science. You don’t get anything for free.
That power to charge the car has to come from somewhere. At the same the Libs are pushing this snake oil, they are bitching about burning coal. The same coal that is used to heat the water, spin the turbines, force AC power down the power lines and into your battery powered car.
First, does the capacity exist? Second, can the distribution network handle it?
The answer is no to both questions and will require years and years and billions and billions of dollars in upgrades. The dirt little secrete that the Libs fail to mention.
I have a theory: burying our heads in the sand and doing nothing is part of the plan. A strategy that, through attrition, constrains supply bit by bit, little by little, until we are forced to consume less because energy is so expensive. Basic economics.
I think GM is already "storing" them on dealers' lots, iirc, from an article a month or so ago.
I'd say something about having that much capital tied would normally be a tad worrisome, but I'm sure BHO has assured his hench-men and women in GM that the taxpayer trough is still available.
My daughter works for a GM dealer. They have one on the lot. They can’t give it away.
The DNR does something like that when they want to take a fish census -- send a volt (or really a whole bunch of 'em) through the water and count what floats to the top.
I hope this isn't some kind of Gummint Motors/Census Bureau joint experiment...
Stupid East German Communists sold the crummy Trabant cheap.
Wise American Communists sell the crummy Volt dear.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.