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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: "All sedans ordered in 2012 will be...

Incentives: Doubling down on industrial policy failure, the administration decides to bump up the taxpayer subsidy for Government Motors' touted electric car. Who said its range wasn't enough to drive us to the poor house? Tucked away in the recesses of President Obama's 2013 budget, a budget that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will not bring to the Senate floor, is a nugget that speaks volumes about the troubles we're in: While delaying the Keystone XL pipeline, the administration plans to increase the subsidy for the Chevy Volt and other "new technology" vehicles to $10,000 per car. "We...

In the words of Yogi Berra, it looks like déjà vu all over again as General Motors plans to "relaunch" the Chevy Volt. Just in case you missed the first rollout that saw certain financial news networks dedicate loads of airtime to help GM build the hype surrounding a vehicle that was to be a savior for GM as support was garnered for a taxpayer bailout and subsequent IPO, we now get a second take on the failed first production. Many of the same cast will appear as cronies at Motor Trend will be cited for giving the Volt...

This post has been updated below. Among the objections about taxpayer subsidies for the high-profileChevy Volt, manufactured by Government Motors, is that the many grants, loans and tax breaks that lowered the sticker price on the electric hybrid car facilitated its (paltry) sales for the benefit of wealthier individuals who were purchasing it – those with average annual salaries of $170,000 . So can you imagine how happy the affluent customers (like Leonardo DiCaprio) of the heavily subsidized, $102,000 electric Fisker Karma are, to be able to purchase their gimmicky sports sedan at a discount, with a $7,500 tax...

Some very humorous (if not cost-effective) ads were exhibited by General Motors during this year's Super Bowl game. GM continues to freely spend its stockpile of taxpayer supplied cash reserve as it even aired a spot touting the Chevy Volt. At a cost of $3.5 million for a 30 second spot the expense equals about 15% of the total revenues GM brought in during the entire month of January for the Volt when sales fell to a dismal level of 603. What is the reasoning behind spending so much to advertise a vehicle that sells in such small numbers...

2012 Chevy Super Bowl Commercials: From the coolest car on the block to the smartest technology in the galaxy. A man walks in on a curious group of intergalactic creatures checking out the advanced technology of his Chevrolet Volt. Learn more about what they're exploring at: www.chevrolet.com/volt VIDEO

Also video interview link below in comment on Gov't Conflict of Interest on Chevy Volt Probe? Well-respected car guy and General Motors supporter, Bob Lutz, posted a piece on Forbes that attacked "right-wing" criticism of the Chevy Volt. With all due respect and noting that I have nowhere near the credentials of Mr. Lutz, I feel it appropriate to respond to the ridiculous defense that we have seen of a vehicle that is costing taxpayers billions of dollars while offering little in return. I also have some questions of my own for Mr. Lutz and GM. First, let's address the...

Back during the days of General Motors' bankruptcy proceedings, media reports cited the many "sacrifices" made by the politically favored UAW. I have long wondered what these many sacrifices were, as UAW members seem to be doing pretty well since the GM bankruptcy. One such "sacrifice" was a supposed agreement that the UAW could not go on strike at GM until after 2015, as mentioned in this Bloomberg piece, and accepted as fact by all media sources. I questioned this assertion in a piece I wrote in December of 2010 , but as has been the case with much...

Cry me a river. General Motors' CEO is complaining that the Chevy Volt has become a "political punching bag." As the Detroit Free Press reports , GM CEO Dan Akerson defended the Volt before a House of Representatives subcommittee Wednesday, saying that the hybrid electric vehicle seemed to be under attack as much for political as practical reasons. 'We did not design the Volt to become a political punching bag, and that’s what it’s become,' Akerson said. The optics of Akerson, CEO of a company whose very existence today stems completely from an infusion of tens of billions of...

General Motors' CEO, Dan Akerson, is scheduled to testify at congressional hearings on the NHTSA delay in reporting Chevy Volt fires. GM and the government agency waited about five months to report an incident involving a Volt which erupted in flames weeks after a crash-test. Up to this point, Akerson has not exactly been honest about the Volt; can we now expect him to come clean? A culture of deceit has been evident at GM since the Obama Administration orchestrated a manipulated bankruptcy process that favored the politically powerful UAW over other classes. It was during the time of...

With NHTSA's closure of the investigation into the Chevy Volt, General Motors is now trying to rebuild the plug-in hybrid's image . But a new stumbling block has appeared on the road to higher sales — dealers turning down Volts from GM. General Motors sold only 7,671 Volts in the United States in 2011, well short of its 10,000-unit target for the first year. GM spokespeople have attributed weakness in demand to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's investigation into the risk of fires in the car's battery pack. But I'm not entirely certain that can all be blamed...

U.S. safety regulators said Friday that they've closed an eight-week investigation into the Chevrolet Volt, concluding that the plug-in hybrid's battery doesn't pose a significant fire risk following a crash. In a statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it "does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles." The agency said that modifications intended to reinforce the Volt's 435-pound lithium-ion battery pack that General Motors announced on Jan. 5 should "reduce the potential" of the pack catching fire in the days or weeks following a crash.

Liberals burn tax money on flammable carsWealthy liberals love nothing better than flaunting their enlightened attitudes. They see the selection of a trendy set of wheels as a great way to advertise their concern for the survival of polar bears. At the top of the must-have list for the self-enlightened is the Chevy Volt. This $40,000 plug-in hybrid can travel 35 miles on battery power, a feat enabling smug owners - their average annual salary is $175,000 - to pretend that their emissions are pure. Of course, instead of coming out the tailpipe, the unwanted carbon-dioxide molecules are instead released...

Last week the Detroit News reported that NHTSA claimed that the White House had nothing to do with the agency's delay in disclosing its Chevy Volt fires to the public. Supposedly, NHTSA contacted the White House three months after the Volt fires and waited another two months before releasing the information to the public. Whether or not the Obama Administration is being honest about its involvement in NHTSA's Chevy Volt investigation, it is clear that we are in an unprecedented situation with the President of the US having his reelection chances largely tied to the success of General Motors,...

It seems that General Motors is sticking to its guns as they continue to blame lack of supply for low sales of the Chevy Volt. A story by the Detroit Free Press quotes GM Vice Chairman, Steve Girsky, as saying that market demand for the Volt will not be known until around June as "...there are still dealer orders that are getting filled and there are customers that are still getting out there." GM's president of North American operations, Mark Reuss, addressed criticism of the Volt by adding, "The worst thing we could do would be to back off...

Since the government takeover of General Motors, the Obama Administration has pumped billions of taxpayer dollars into the failed auto company, in hopes that it will revitalize its green initiatives. Recently, they have doubled down on their efforts to interfere with free market economics by subsidizing the research, design, and sales of Chevrolet’s new electric car, affectionately known as the Volt. President Obama testing out a new Chevy Volt The Chevrolet Volt carries a sticker price in excess of $40,000. However, with some nifty Obama subsidies, the price has been brought down into the low $30,000′s. With these tax credits,...

VIDEO 4:19 minutes NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica says it is time to end tax credits and subsidies for electric vehicles. He is interviewed by Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network on Friday, January 6. Here's a transcript: Neil Cavuto : Meanwhile, a Fox Business Alert that is going to be a topical issue, drivers paying more to fill up. But it doesn't look like they're getting fed up with the gas guzzlers. Gasoline now at its highest price ever for the start of the year. It's still rising. But look what else is rising. Sales of really big...

See what I did there with that headline? Government Motors won’t like it. Here’s a little vignette that might tell us much about the difference between the mainstream media and the rest of us. As I’m walking into Newt Gingrich’s townhall at Public Service New Hampshire in Manchester, I am behind a pair of MSMers, a man and a woman. The two are chatting about the event and the fact that it’s a Republican candidate, and the woman mutters something about “crosses and swastikas.” The man just chuckles. No bias to see here. As we’re walking along the sidewalk...

MSN Autos - General Motors announced in Shanghai today that it will jointly develop an electric vehicle with longtime Chinese partner SAIC -- a move that some U.S. lawmakers have likened to a shakedown. China has built its manufacturing infrastructure around low-cost production and continues to lag behind other developed countries when it comes to developing and implementing cutting-edge automotive technology. For the past 25 years, the Chinese government has required foreign automakers to partner with Chinese companies, which are required to own a stake of at least 50 percent. China also imposes heavy tariffs on imported cars, which some...

VIDEO 4 minutes Last night, NLPC Associate Fellow Paul Chesser discussed the Chevy Volt recall with Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network. Here's a transcript: Neil Cavuto : ...Forget Volt sales and that they are far from catching fire. Apparently the cars really are in danger of catching fire. GM is recalling nearly 8,000 Chevy Volts for what they're calling enhancements. I actually hate it when people do that but that's what they're calling them, enhancements, aimed at preventing the battery from bursting into flames. The National Legal and Policy Center's Paul Chesser says that this recall should be...

General Motors reported Chevy Volt sales of 1,529 for the month of December. The still unimpressive number is an improvement over previous months, but the gains were mostly driven by fleet sales. According to GM, 992 of the Volts sold were to retail customers while 537 went to fleet purchasers. GM says the fleet sales were to corporate buyers and not to rental companies. The number of Volts sold to townships receiving federal grants remains unknown. The corporate sales claim makes sense as crony company, General Electric, starts to make good on its promise to buy thousands of Volts....

General Motors plans to ask Volt owners to bring their electric cars into dealers to strengthen the structure around the batteries, according to a report. The move is similar to a recall and involves the 8,000 Volts sold in the U.S. in the past two years.

General Motors' much-hyped Chevy Volt has yet another distinction to add to its long list of commendations. We had all heard repeatedly about Motor Trends' Car of the Year award, Consumer Reports' recommendation and Jay Leno's love affair with the car, but the Volt now gets a less publicized, more deserved distinction from Yahoo Finance's 24/7 Wall Street site. The Volt has made the list of "The Worst Product Flops of 2011" and apologists for the vehicle are sure to, once again, attack the credibility of those issuing the opinion. The Obama Administrations' favorite car has had a rough...

Pennsylvania Congressman, Mike Kelly, wants to end the $7,500 tax credit that affluent purchasers of electric vehicles are currently taking advantage of. The most hyped of these vehicles has been General Motors' Chevy Volt, but other plug-in cars, like Fiskers and Teslas, sell for close to $100,000 and make a strong case for Rep. Kelly's argument. Let's look past the recent Chevy Volt fires. The value of a vehicle will be determined by the consumer. It does not matter if Jay Leno and other rich purchasers say they love their Volts. The real questions are, should taxpayers be paying...

Shortly after he gave General Motors a $53 billion bailout in 2009, President Barack Obama said the plug-in Chevrolet Volt would be salvation of the beleaguered automaker. Consumers will buy 120,000 Volts each year from 2012 onwards, the Energy Department predicted then. But through November, only 6,142 Volts have been sold. And that pitiful figure is inflated by purchases for government fleets. Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, isn’t surprised. “No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla,” he told Lawrence Ulrich of MSN Autos in 2009. “So...

Recently the Chevy Volt, General Motor's (GM) venerable electric-hybrid car, turned one-year old. This marks an important occasion for GM that they have been able to sell and bring to market this electric-hybrid car. The real question for GM, what's next?To date GM has fallen short of it's lofty sales target for the Volt. They expected to sell 10,000 Volts in a one-year period, but they have fallen short of that goal by about 40%. They have only sold around 6,000 Volts around the country. (Not surprising from a company that keeps making promises it cannot keep.) For GM, the...

Green Policy: A think tank crunches the subsidy and bailout dollars and puts the true cost of Government Motors' electric car at a cool quarter-million. And the few sold have been largely bought by the 1%. At a time when Democrats are blaming the GOP for blocking a payroll tax cut deal that will add $40 in the average paycheck, they have no problem taking that worker's tax dollars to make and subsidize what we once called an electric Edsel bought by a precious few with an average income of $170,000. "Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as...

NLPC Associate Fellow Paul Chesser was interviewed last night on Cavuto on the Fox Business Network. Paul asserted that electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt have failed in the marketplace, despite massive taxpayer subsidies. VIDEO 3:49 minutes

Last night on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox News Channel, NLPC Associate Fellow Mark Modica discussed disappointing sales of the Chevy Volt, and GM's apparent goosing of sales figures through fleet sales. VIDEO 3:25 minutes

Sales for the Chevy Volt have been stagnant and it has become apparent that lack of supply is not the reason. GM CEO Dan Akerson is responsible for tying the success of GM into the success of the Volt by having made lofty claims that the vehicle was, in fact, the future of the company while investing a major portion of marketing dollars to help support the perception. Deception was evident as statements were made that the vehicle was "virtually" sold out and supply couldn't keep up with demand, while evidence surfaced that this was not the case ....

In January of 2010 USA Today reported that Consumer Reports (CR) temporarily suspended its recommended rating for eight Toyota models. This was in response to the possibility of Toyota models being unsafe as accusations were made that the vehicles had sudden acceleration problems and NHTSA investigated the alleged incidents. In CRs' words, "Although incidents of sudden acceleration are rare, we are taking this action because the vehicles have been identified as potentially unsafe without a fix yet being available to consumers." CRs' response to the Chevy Volt NHTSA fires is quite different from the Toyota response. Change a few...

With investigations into the safety of the Chevrolet Volt’s battery pack on-going , Automotive News reports that GM is going to go with a whole new battery technology in the upcoming 2013 Chevrolet Spark Electric that is safer, more stable, and will have a longer life than the Volt’s lithium ion battery pack. Currently most electric cars and hybrids including the Chevy Volt and Buick LaCrosse E-Assist use lithium metal oxide chemistry in their Lithium Ion battery packs, sourced from LG Chem in South Korea. According to Automotive News GM’s planning on using phosphate-based lithium ion batteries on its...

Here's another surprise for Chevy Volt owners. Autoblog reports that General Motors is holding an online chat with Volt owners about winter driving. Part of the chat reveals that, despite the fact that GM claimed the Volt is purely electric for a range of about 35 miles, the vehicle will use gas in cold conditions. GM states, "Please be aware: when starting your Volt in these colder months, in some instances, your gas engine may engage regardless of the state of charge of the battery. This was designed into (the) Volt to generate heat for the battery when temperatures...

You may have heard of the announcement that there will be a congressional investigation into why NHTSA waited six months to notify the public of the crash-tested Chevy Volt which burst into flames three weeks after the crash-test. If you have, it was probably not through mainstream media networks, which seem to be keeping fairly quiet on the story. I have not been able to ascertain a logical reason for General Motors and the Obama Administration's transportation safety agency to withhold reporting the incident. At the least, they should have immediately publicized the safety protocol that was developed as...

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today filed a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for any and all communications with General Motors (GM). The NHTSA is investigating three fires in the battery packs of GM's Chevy Volt following collision tests, but may have withheld information of this potential safety problem from the public for several months. The United States government still owns a significant stake in GM. There's an obvious conflict of interest in a government agency investigating a government-owned company. Moreover, the NHTSA cannot be...

Detroit News reports that Congress will hold a hearing to determine why NHTSA waited six months to report a spontaneously combusting Chevy Volt which went up in flames three weeks after a crash-test. The news comes three weeks after I first questioned the delay. While there was no justification for NHTSA to keep the incident secret from the public, the skepticism towards a government agency of the Executive Branch being in charge of investigating the safety of President Obama's favorite car is fully justified. The realization that NHTSA's delay in reporting its Volt fire may have been motivated by...

General Motors has announced it is buying back Chevy Volts from any purchasers who are concerned about safety risks associated with the vehicle. NHTSA is currently investigating fires that occurred after crash tests of the vehicles when the volatile lithium-ion batteries ignited days after the tests. Any buybacks of the vehicles sets the stage for wealthy purchasers to take advantage of lax rules for the $7,500 tax credit available on the vehicle. Essentially, many purchasers can return their Volts and then go ahead and apply for the credit, even though they do not currently own the vehicle and received...

President Obama’s re-election campaign is in full swing. He’s flying to swing states, on our dime, to convince voters he deserves a second term based upon…I’m not exactly sure what. Obama 2012 released its first ad this week (you can watch it here). It’s a call for volunteers. Maybe the campaign thinks since the president’s policies have driven so many people into unemployment, there are a lot of people out there with time on their hands to go door-to-door for Obama. The most telling part of the ad is the line, “…the outcome (of the election) will depend not on...

It’s another day, and another round of layoffs by a recipient of millions of dollars under the Obama Administration’s renewable energy initiatives, administered by the mismanaged Department of Energy. This time the Recovery Act largesse – taken out of the hide of taxpayers – went to A123 Systems, Inc. The Massachusetts-based energy storage company was given $249.1 million to help launch two battery-manufacturing plants in Michigan. A123 also received grants and tax credits from the state that could total more than $135 million. In a separate federal grant as a subcontractor for another grantee, A123 received nearly $30 million...

I made an appearance on the Cavuto show last night to discuss low sales for the Chevy Volt. This came after I had listened in on the sales conference call by General Motors. I recognized a major shift on the call regarding the Volt, which is that GM management is finally starting to hedge on the potential for Volt sales after having hyped the vehicle as being a game changer with projections of demand that far exceeded supply. Statements such as "It's much more than just being about sales, the Volt is a magnet to showcase our brand." give...

Some troubling inconsistencies are arising regarding General Motors and NHTSA's response to the crash-tested Chevy Volt fires first reported a few weeks ago. NHTSA and GM delayed informing the public of the initial Volt incident that occurred about six months ago until recently. According to an early NY Times piece on the exploding Volt, NHTSA and GM claimed that they were unable to replicate the fire that occurred at the time. In fact, according to a CNN Money piece that ran when the story first broke, GM spokesman Greg Martin stated that the Volt battery pack was subjected to...

Electric-car sales are on fire. Okay, well, only a few electric cars have actually gone up in smoke. But with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opening a formal safety investigation into fears about fires started by the much-hyped Chevrolet Volt, it’s become clear yet again that electric vehicles are The Next Big Thing — and they always will be. Safety questions are the last thing that the electric-vehicle market needs. Indeed, the U.S. already has a huge excess of electric-vehicle (EV) battery-production capacity. This month, A123 Systems, one of the country’s highest-profile battery makers for the EV market, cut...

Many articles written over the past year have questioned if President Obama will be able to reach his goal of having a million electric vehicles on US roads in 2015. A more important fact has been overlooked. That is, even if we get a million EVs on the roads in four years, we will have done practically nothing to reduce oil consumption in America. To be more specific, we will reduce consumption by approximately 0.15%. Is it worth the billions of taxpayer dollars spent producing controversial vehicles like the Chevy Volt in order to lessen foreign oil dependence four...

Industrial Policy: The investigation into the safety of electric car batteries intensifies after additional fires involving the flagship of a proposed electric vehicle fleet. Central planning doesn't work for cars or insurance. When the Toyota Prius was being accused of having overlooked design flaws that were causing accelerators to get stuck with fatal results, the owners of Government Motors, a competitor, wasted little time pushing for a recall and congressional hearings while accusing Toyota of cutting corners for the sake of corporate profits. We wonder if the same sense of urgency will prevail in the wake of new safety tests...

The Associated Press has reported that new fires involving the Chevy Volt have prompted NHTSA to open an investigation to assess the risks for the vehicle. Two Volts that had been crash-tested by the government agency recently caught fire or "emitted smoke and sparks." This follows an incident that occurred about 6 months ago when a Volt burst into flames three weeks after a crash-test. Considering that NHTSA delayed informing the public of that incident , will it be possible for an agency of the Executive Branch of government to now give a fair assessment of the risks of...

Environmental Impacts: An investigation is launched into the possibility of battery fires occurring in crashes involving Government Motors' touted electric car. Industrial policy meets the law of unintended consequences. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced an investigation into the safety of electric cars using lithium batteries, particularly the Chevy Volt, after a battery fire occurred after a side-impact crash test. It has asked other manufacturers who make electric cars or that plan to do so for information on how they handle lithium-ion batteries. The request also includes recommendations for minimizing fire risk. The feds say this is only...

Industrial Policy: Not only do taxpayers subsidize failing green energy here, they may soon be on the hook for a Department of Energy loan to a firm owned by a Russian billionaire. Just say nyet. When a foreign firm wants to build a facility in the U.S. that hires American workers and pays American taxes, we welcome it. We'd prefer they do it with their own money, not rely on this administration's failed industrial policy to provide them with a huge taxpayer-backed loan — especially when it's owned by a billionaire who doesn't need the help. The administration's latest green...

Boondoggles: With the administration's approval, the recipient of another half-billion-dollar loan to build electric cars is outsourcing the work and any jobs that might be created or saved to Finland. The Fisker Karma electric car, heralded two years ago by Vice President Joe Biden as the future of the American auto industry, may prove to be another administration "bad bet," just as President Obama called Solyndra, heralded by Biden as the future of American energy. "Folks, we're making a bet," Biden said Oct. 27, 2009, using a familiar administration metaphor. "We're making a bet on the future, we're making a...

Last week NLPC reported about aConsumer Reports reviewer’s unpleasant experience driving the all-electric Nissan Leaf. Despite Liza Barth’s frequent range anxiety and endurance of freezing temperatures so as to avoid using the Leaf’s heater to preserve its power, she declined to give it a “thumbs down.” Instead, she seemed to chalk up the inconveniences (like “numb fingers and toes”) to her own inability to adapt to new technology, rather than calling the electric vehicle what it really is: a failure that is massively subsidized by taxpayers. Last month another Leaf customer wrote about his experience, and as opposed to...

Every once in a while I come across an article that sheds light on what a boondoggle the green initiatives of the Obama Administration are. The latest evidence comes as General Motors tries to prove high consumer demand for the Chevy Volt as it tries to meet its goal of 10,000 vehicles sold in 2011. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the town of DeLand, FL is buying five Chevy Volts. That is not the disturbing part of the story. The article reports that the town is using taxpayer money it has received from a $1.2 million federal grant that...