Ever since the Government and the United Auto Workers took over General Motors (using taxpayer funds), we've been looking forward to seeing the synthesis of their keen planning abilities and stringent cost-containment measures. And now it's here.
The Chevy "Volt" is a theoretically enviro-friendly car which runs on electricity and taxpayer dollars. The price starts at a heartstopping $41,ooo...and buys you a car that can only travel 40 miles on its internal electrical power.
Yes, that means you can easily drive all-electrically coast-to-coast across America (3,452 miles), stopping only 86 times to recharge!
Fortunately, the electrical power is supplemented by an internal combustion engine...which still uses fossil fuels and pollutes just as much as the engines in less expensive cars. Except this engine will actually deliver less efficiency, because of the significant extra weight created by the Volt's battery array.
And it is those same batteries that make the Volt something of an environmental nightmare, because the component materials cannot be easily recycled, and are far more damaging than the materials which go into a standard automobile - releasing up to 60 times more lead into the atmosphere.
Adding to the Volt's potential problems: Nissan Motors has just introduced their own electric car, the Leaf, which (with subsidies) will have an entry level price as low as $21,500.
The New GM: Your tax dullards at work.
The Chevy Volt: "Hope and Charge"
21 comments:
I think the Volt also has a Federal taxpayer shaft of $7500 bringing its cost to $33500. A Chevrolet Malibu costs about $22000 and gets 22/30 mpg. You can buy lots of gasoline for $11500 and you get a bigger car...
Obama and GM: Simply Revolting.
I'm all for a plug-in, hybrid car, but $41,000? I paid one tenth that for my 1994, 4-door, Suzuki Swift and it gets 40/36 MPG.
News reports never mention that, just like every other battery, hybrid batteries wear out in time and will have to be replaced at SIGNIFICANT expense (and environmental peril f/ disposal). What's the cost of replacement battery bank amortized monthly??
So you get about 40 miles to the charge...20 miles round trip. Not gonna work
Can't document it, but I recall reading awhile back that a large city like New York would not have enough electric distribution infrastructure in place to recharge a substantial number of electric vehicles.
I've read many articles by anti-combustion engine/oil drilling liberals who blame suburbs and exburbs for the decline of civilization. (Non-city folk are also bigots and homophobic, you know.) They no doubt love the Volt's potential to limit our ability to commute; and they would celebrate the death of the suburb.
Readers- Good comments! One other consideration to throw into the mix: this administration is making the legal argument that the government can compel citizens to buy what they deem to be what's best for the country. Currently, that's health insurance, but the principle could be applied to anything...meaning if cars like the Volt don't appeal to consumers, the government could force people to buy them.
Stilton:
My master tells me that the Obama regime now admits that the healthcare mandate is a tax. How would a Volt-purchase mandate work?
My Dog Brewski- It would work exactly the same way, and be justified as a tax (not fairly, but just as fairly as healthcare). For instance, the government could declare that any family with an income of $100,000 or more (for instance) would be limited to only one internal combustion automobile, but an electric vehicle which met government-defined standards could be purchased affordably with government subsidies.
In other words, consumers would be forced to buy what they don't want, and which doesn't work well, at too high a price...but with the actual cost spread unfairly to other taxpayers. Sound familiar?
Granted, it's $100k, but here's what a REAL electric car looks like
http://www.teslamotors.com/
Being an employee of that - ahem - "other" automaker who, um, DIDN'T suckle at the teet of my tax dollars, I, er, probably shouldn't, uh - I really shouldn't comment.
But I will.
ANYONE who thinks that there will be this MIRACULOUS, MASSIVE conversion to PLUG IN ELECTRICS, FUEL CELL ELECTRICS, CNG FUELED IC CARS, other such vehicles has clearly bypassed the kool-aid and latched right onto the crack pipe. And those who BLAME THE AUTOMAKERS for the failure of this MIRACLE to occur are also at the snack bar noshing on some pretty potent hash brownies!
First, for a publicly held company to adapt such a thing, they need to be sure that they will be able to sell them at a profit in order to keep those shareholders interested, as well as pay their employees and invest in R&D in order to advance their efforts in the future. Introducing a machine that requires unique, non-widespread fueling outlets all but guarantees that you've produced a lawn ornament for some redneck in the deep south - no one can drive what they cannot fuel. (No offense intended to any individuals living in the south who might enjoy useless vehicles on their front lawn. To each his own, in that regard. I personally have one myself.) And, last I looked, there are no CNG stations. No fuel cell exchange centers scattered about the landscape. There is no INFRASTRUCTURE to support these vehicles.
Who remembers the great blackout of 2003? How many have experienced the brownouts and brief outages blamed on air conditioners in summer? Can you imagine how well our electrical infrastructure would handle all us happy commuters plugging our Gummint Mandated 'Lectric Cars in every night? We'll enjoy summery brownouts all year 'round! And maybe have a few big ol' blackouts sprinkled in to add to our summer fun! Sure! Then add in Cap'n Tax, and even the Gummint will be happy!
The crippling effect will have us pouring over the Arizona border into Mexico (and then they WILL build a wall to protect the border...)
Ask an academic or other brain dead leftie "who should provide said infrastructure", and they start groping our pockets: "Why, the GUMMINT," they say! "The GUMMINT should put in the infrastructure!" It's enough to send a good constitutional conservative around the twist, as they say. The GUMMINT should not do so. Then you have a perpetuated failure (much like Gummint Motors and Fia-sler).
And yes! What about those batteries? Anybody bought tires or had their oil changed lately? Yeah? You notice the Enviro-Fascist Fee you're charged? Disposal fee? No concern for the environment, really, just another "tax-that's-not-a-tax". I might be more inclined to have the rusting hulk of a long-dead IC engine vehicle melting into the soil that a couple lithium batteries - or a handful of those wondrous fluorescent lights the "scientist s of the senate" mandated we start using - again, little concern for all the mercury these will release into our pristine environment.
The most unfortunate point to this rant is that those academics and brain dead lefties who hold that it is the GUMMINT's responsibility to create the infrastructure to make all these miracles happen, that the GUMMINT should tell us what kind of light builb we can by - these puckered ends of the large intestine are the ones now holding power in Washington.
Enough. Time to continue earning my living...
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!!!! another day, another catastrophe
Emmentaler- Your rants are always enjoyed (and darn well written). Isn't it funny that the government can't really mandate changes in physics, mechanics, or workable economics? But that sure doesn't stop them from trying.
Emmentaler - You had me all the way up until I got to THIS phrase...
"these puckered ends of the large intestine"
Then, I am sorry to say, I laughed so hard milk shot out of my nose.. if only I had been drinking milk at the time
TDK
Since I live roughly 28 miles away from the urban area where I go daily to wrest a modest livelihood from the clutches of Industry, it appears I'm going to have to have two extra vehicles to park at each end of the Volts' travel range, to get the last few miles each way after the thing goes current zero before I can get to either home or work. Or maybe no one would mind me taking the time away from work to walk the extra 8 miles twice a day? One good thing about leaving such an expensive car 4 to 8 miles from home while finishing the trip on foot is, since it won't run, chances are nobody will steal it. Reminds me of a great time I've had with my liberal, Prius driving neighbor, who took the time to read me the environmentalist riot act last summer because all my cars are big American made units, mostly the eco-disaster SUV all wheel drive variety. Prius Puss insisted it was my duty to the EARTH to scrap all my vehicles and get on the GREEN bandwagon, etc. etc. First, told the twerp I'd be happy to accept 3 or 4 Priuses from him as gifts, if he was that concerned, but spending $35,000.00 a pop to double my gas mileage would not return any profit to me until about 20 years out. Imagine my delight this past winter when Prius-Puss couldn't get his ecomobile to go up the street during our record snowstorms,(caused by either Al Gore or Global warming, pick one) and he had to catch a ride in one of my BAAAAAD SUV's so as not to lose his teaching job for failing to show up on the 20 days it snowed?
Probably should have left him home, considering how many children he's likely teaching how not to think.
Front Woodsman- In fairness, we have to reiterate that the Volt will go more than 40 miles... but that's the limit if you stick to the environmentally blissful electrical power system. Any farther, and you have to rely on a carcinogen-belcing internal combustion engine that is laboring to pull hundreds of pounds of useless batteries, thereby reducing mileage.
And your friend with the Prius reminds us of how frequently liberals do what they think is good, without actually thinking it through at all.
Does all this mean I should hold on to my poor 1977 Chevy Nova with a gutless wonder inline 6?
What does Obama know about what's a typical commute? In Texas it's not unusual to have a 55 , 75, 80 mile round tripper. Not typical, but not unusual. Why does this happen? Because people SHOULD be assigned a hovel and a job by the government. It is this insane "fleedom?" that causes people to be misassigned like this. Soon everybody will work near their home. At Auschwitz nobody commuted more than a mile. Arbeit Macht Frei !!
TDK,
Thanks - your comment makes the time spend in Mr. Torgerson's ("Torg" to those who knew him. Back then, teachers taught rather than indoctrinate.) Creative Writing course way, way back in high school worthwhile. Glad you enjoyed it.
Stilton,
Love your blog. You'll note I spend far more time responding to yours than writing in mine :o) Thanks for being there for us.
So, Stilton, when we destroy all the families earning $100,000 or more, whom do we bleed. Three guesses and the first two don't count.
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