Posted on 03/07/2012 8:26:57 AM PST by Hojczyk
President Obama boasted at a United Auto Workers conference last week that General Motors was back in business, producing cutting-edge vehicles like the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt. He even promised to buy one when his time in office ends “five years from now.”
Whoops! Just three days later, GM announced that it would suspend Volt production for five weeks this spring, idling 1,300 workers at a Hamtramck, Mich., factory.
Alas, Obama’s endorsements notwithstanding, there’s not much of a market for this little bitty car, at least not at the price of almost $32,000 — after a $7,500 federal tax rebate.
GM fell 2,300 units short of its sales target (10,000) for 2011. It is not on pace to hit 2012’s goal of 45,000 units.
So much for Obama’s goal of 1 million all-electrics and plug-ins on the road by 2015.
A123 Systems, a maker of electric-car batteries that has received $374 million in state and federal loans, announced 125 layoffs last fall. The cause: problems at its main customer, Fisker Automotive, which builds expensive plug-in electric cars. Fisker got a half-billion in loans from the Energy Department, though the money was recently frozen because of the company’s failure to meet production targets.
These events confirm the wasteful folly of allocating capital according to the dictates of politicians, such as when Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared in November 2008: “A business model based on gas — a gas-guzzling past — is unacceptable. We need a business model based on cars of the future, and we already know what that future is: the plug-in hybrid electric car.”
The electric vehicle flop also illuminates a point about science — or the politics of science.
I
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This guy must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed....he is on Fox Panel and is a big Obama guy..
Wonder what this will do with GE’s order of 20,000 of them....
Liberal puke Charles Lane actually makes sense. Look out the window — are pigs flying?
As the price of gas rises, the sales of new pickups by the Big 3 American automakers goes down.
It is all sort of sad -
Without the GOVERNMENT choosing winners and losers of their grant $ - real engineers and entrepreneurs might actually enter the market.
But how can we? Those without the political contacts would need to compete with those being funded by the government with 100s of $millions. AND - even if we beat them - the government could not be counted on not to change the rules - to benefit those chosen by the government.
These awards do MUCH more than waste money. they stymie real innovation.
This might get the "Understatement of the Day" award.
There were - what? - 1000-1500 Volts sold in the first two months of the year? And they've just stopped production on more?
I'll take the "under" on that bet.
The electric vehicle will never be a good choice for cool and cold climates. There just is not enough energy in the batteries when they are cold and heat is needed along with propulsion power. These vehicles only get the attention of poorly educated people who know next to nothing about science or physics. The only good place for electrics is in small communities with mild to warm climates..as modified golf carts. Retirement communities and similar.
Electric Edsel’s fail to sell.millions down the rat hole another Obama deed sucks.
Democrats and liberals are fond of calling their conservative and Republican adversaries “anti-science.” To the extent that the right espouses “creation science,” or disputes established facts about environmental degradation, it’s an appropriate label.
I have yet to meet a single informed and rational conservative or Republican human being who questions demonstrable environmental degradation; but the myth breathes new life into the "green monster."
Oh, and how are you supposed to resell your electric vehicle once you’ve driven it five years and the battery is depleted?
I should call AP, Reuters and the New York Times. My Prius depleted its batteries four years ago, semms totally unaware of it, and continues to take me everywhere I wish to go without skipping a beat.
When the main battery is depleted, I can replace it at one tenth the cost of a Volt with 10 times the range.
But what do I know?
I'm just a stoopid anti-science conservative, Democrat by registration, educated and informed by common sense.
If this could work: http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/Howard_Johnson_Motor/How2/index.html
Then put a Howard Johnson under the hood and Electric cars would become ubliquitous overnight.
But overunity motors are a pipe dream as far as I can tell.
He even promised to buy one when his time in office ends “five years from now.”
First off, Obama promised so you know it aint gonna happen.
Second, he won’t be in office five years from now.
Finally, if he would actually buys a Volt that would put their total sales for the year 2017 at 1 Volt.
Otherwise,the Volt is one of many possible metaphors for Obumbo’s Presidency.
I told him, it depends on the Scientist, do you need me to send you some Google links to my Scientists?
That shut him up.
He is also “Agnostic”, which is just an Atheist without a spine, but I digress. Science, science, science they scream from the trees.
Common sense? It would take over 10 years to recover the upfront costs of a Toyota Prius as compared to other economical vehicles such as the Honda Fit.
How many square feet of solar cells would it take to charge one of these afro-engineered abortions to equal one tank of gasoline, (Say, 300 miles of travel.)?
How many hours of 12 mph wind does it take?
Hour many tons of coal?
How many cubic feet of natural gas?
That’s only if the battery pack doesn’t crap the bed and I guarantee that won’t be the case. One cell goes, 10,000 for the entire pack.
Just where do these retards think electricity comes from? It comes, for the most part, from coal fired power plants. The ones that Obama is putting out of business.
Whoops! Just three days later, GM announced that it would suspend Volt production for five weeks this spring, idling 1,300 workers at a Hamtramck, Mich., factory.
Did it again! Every time zero gives a speech at a "green" factory they lay off a bunch of workers in short order! Someone needs to photoshop up a "Kiss of Death" image for zero!
100 MPG Fuel Efficient Car for $25,000
SGT-01 | WIKISPEED
http://www.youtube.com/user/WIKISPEED?feature=watch
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