Thread: Electric car fantasies, Obama Motors off to a rousing start

As you get closer, look for the holier-than-thou facial expression on the driver.

Electric car fantasies, real economic joke: Obama Motors off to a rousing start

By News on the Net Tuesday, August 3, 2010
by Chuck Rogér

At $41,000, the new Chevy Volt electric car is, in the words of GM's Volt program director, "a game-changing product." The "thought process" that went into the Volt will change GM's game alright, as in end the game.

With a total range of 40 miles on a full battery charge, and requiring a $7,500 federal tax credit just bring the vehicle's price down to twice the price of the average economy car of similar size and power, the Volt is a wretched dog even before pulling away from the starting line.

Oh, there'll be glassy-eyed enviro-nuts who'll buy the monstrosity. But by nature, the wiring in the enviro-nut's cerebral cortex is a wee bit more tangled than your run-of-the-mill liberal. In fact, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen says http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/03/repo ... hevy-volt/ that there simply aren't "enough idiots who will buy" the Volt to make the vehicle a profitable product line. Adding to the woeful predictions, George Magliano of IHS Global Insight, an economic and political analysis outfit, says http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 05834.html that the Volt will probably not be a "volume vehicle." Magliano adds, "The technology still isn't there to make them cheap. At the end of the day, the consumer pays a hefty premium to make a statement."

So then, how will we be aware of being in the presence of a statement maker?

You'll be able to detect the approach of a Volt even before you can read the word "Volt" on the car. Just look for a huge halo. As you get closer, look for the holier-than-thou facial expression on the driver. You'll be in the presence of an enlightened being who truly believes that driving toy cars will "save the planet" by reducing "carbon emissions." The halo, the arrogant expression, and the "Volt" name on the rear of the gutless wonder assure that the person behind the wheel--knower of all things that should be known--is better than you.

A sticker price up to two-and-a-half times the competition on a car nobody wants--except halo-wearing greenies--is what we get when lefty government ideologues run car companies. After all, GM's CEO, Barack Obama, did pledge to put a million electric cars on the road by 2015. And now CEO Obama has demonstrated yet again an utter befuddlement over basic economics. Obama said, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0072800006

Because of advances in the manufacturing, [battery] costs are expected to come down by nearly 70 percent in the next few years. That's going to make electric and hybrid cars and trucks more affordable for more Americans.

No, actually manufacturing improvements alone will most emphatically not make alternative-powered gutless wonders "more affordable for more Americans." Big cost reductions like the one that Obama predicts require huge volume increases. Again, basic economics. And to make matters worse, according to the Manhattan Institute's Robert Bryce, http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- ... -senate/2/

In all, about 50 different entities were given federal grants (all provided by the stimulus package passed by Congress) that totaled some $2.4 billion as part of an “electric drive vehicle battery and component manufacturing initiative.â€

Obama is pushing for electric cars.
Obama says his Cap N Trade plan would make electricity prices sky rocket.

Coincidence?