Friday, July 30, 2010

When government's run auto companies

You get the Volt. The Obama version of the Yugo.

Per the NY Times no less.............

GENERAL MOTORS introduced America to the Chevrolet Volt at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show as a low-slung concept car that would someday be the future of motorized transportation. It would go 40 miles on battery power alone, promised G.M., after which it would create its own electricity with a gas engine. Three and a half years — and one government-assisted bankruptcy later — G.M. is bringing a Volt to market that makes good on those two promises. The problem is, well, everything else.

For starters, G.M.’s vision turned into a car that costs $41,000 before relevant tax breaks ... but after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volt’s development and production. And instead of the sleek coupe of 2007, it looks suspiciously similar to a Toyota Prius. It also requires premium gasoline, seats only four people (the battery runs down the center of the car, preventing a rear bench) and has less head and leg room than the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze, which is more or less the non-electric version of the Volt.

In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build. Unfortunately for this theory, G.M. was already committed to the Volt when it entered bankruptcy. And though President Obama’s task force reported in 2009 that the Volt “will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term,” it didn’t cancel the project.


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And can someone pleeeeeeease tell the liberals that this car still runs nearly 100% on fossile fuel? The electric battery charge has to be powered by electricity which is based mostly coal in this country. In fact, take into account the wasted energy transporting and charging the battery, and this car probably has a larger carbon footprint than your typical SUV.

Anonymous said...

But then the libs are not known for respecting laws. I'm speaking about the laws of physics, chemistry, or the law of supply and demand.

gordon gekko said...

Don't forget battery production which kicks out all kinds of harmful discharge as well as all kinds of carbon.