The author of that article—who works for and published it through a think-tank called “The Mackinac Center ” which keeps its funding sources private—later had to qualify his $250,000 figure:
Mr. Hohman said, “This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant,” referring to the car produced by the former Communist state of East Germany. But when appearing this Wednesday on the Lou Dobbs syndicated radio program, Mr. Hohman seemed to backtrack on the $250,000-per-Volt figure. First of all, he qualifies the 6,000 sales figure used as the divisor in his calculation. “I’m sure they’re going to sell more as time goes by,” he said. “I understand the people that actually bought them really enjoy them.”
Furthermore, he admits that the actual taxpayer expense so far is well below $3 billion. Mr. Hohman’s used a tally of pledged government support including state and federal assistance from 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The $3 billion total subsidy figure includes $690.4 million offered by the state of Michigan and $2.3 billion in federal money. “If all $3 billion worth of incentives were tapped, and it’s not likely that they are, but it could range up to $250,000 per Volt,” said Hohman on the Lou Dobbs show. “Again, that’s not likely to happen. But if you just took the federal incentives that were being offered to this project and the incentives to buy so far, it would still be $50,000.” Some of the tax credits and subsidies are offered for periods up to 20 years.
The incentives still exist.
It still is sold at a loss.
That is the bottom line.
And the volt still has an electric range equivalent to one gallon of gas.