GM is Alive and the Volt is Dead. By: Ben How
Post# of 1902
GM is Alive and the Volt is Dead.
One of the talking points that Obama’s reelection campaign has been pushing is that “ Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive! ” It’s fair to say that the success of GM is a pretty important linchpin to his reelection case.
Something that Obama has not been running on is his failed attempts to force his green dreams on an unwilling public. You won’t see him selling bumper stickers about Solyndra or Fisker .
For Obama, his supposed successes and his actual failures merge into one story. Such is the case with the Chevy Volt, Obama’s green initiative and GM’s “ moonshot .”
But these days even the Obama-friendly press is having trouble keeping up the act after the Volt halted production following their dismal sales of 21,000 vehicles since manufacturing first began. Honing in on the outlandish claims the administration & GM had made in the beginning that in hindsight are clearly unrealistic, the Washington Post Editorial Board ripped apart the administration on their failure to make their investment in the Volt worth the taxpayer’s while.
There is no market, or not much of one, for vehicles that are less convenient and cost thousands of dollars more than similar-sized gas-powered alternatives — but do not save enough fuel to compensate. The basic theory of the Obama push for electric vehicles — if you build them, customers will come — was a myth. And an expensive one, at that.
I’d write more about how dismal the green initiatives of the administration have been but it might cause you to not read the WaPo article yourself which is simply too delicious a dish to deny anyone.
Instead, here are some commercials that I made in support of the Obama’s efforts to use our tax money as venture capital funding.
Drive from New York to L.A. in 4 weeks and 3 days--be sure to bring an extension cord.