GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees.
Republicans have argued that the Volt was being pushed by the Obama administration for political reasons instead of consumer demand.
“Is the commitment to the American public or is the commitment to clean energy, that we are going to get there any way we can?” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) asked in a hearing in the House in January about the Volt's reported battery fires.
“When the market is ready … it won’t have to be subsidized,” Kelly said.
Chevy has sought to give a boost to the public image of the Volt, releasing a commercial in January tying the Volt to the effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
"This isn’t just the car we wanted to build,” a narrator says in the commercial over footage of Volts being manufactured in Hamtramck, Mich. “This is the car America had to build.”
And after all of that government help, too.
Money well spent, no?
16 comments:
Joe - Good post.
I Believe that the Electric Car is The Way Of The Future.
But - Joe - it has to be done - all in good time.
When it is Sufficiently Inexpensive Enough - for the American Consumer to Afford it - and - of course - for the Auto Companies to be able Produce it - at Reasonable Cost.
Bob Lutz - the former Vice Chairman at General Motors - talked about this on last Friday's
Real Time With Bill Maher (see my post on that) - saying that Going
Electric has to be a gradual
transition and the range - at present - is not wide enough.
Lutz went on to say that we Really
need Better Technology for this to Work.
".......Shocking...just shocking....."
It don't get much punnier than that!
Producing the Volt allows GM to, statistically, keep its combined fleet average fuel economy low enough to meet the the Gov't mandates AND produce the gas-guzzling behemoths the public want.
In management, you get the behaviour you reward - and it ain't necessarily the behaviour you think you will get.
sue hanes: Actually, hydrogen make much more sense...much more.
ALTC: A pun my word!
Joe - I am not into Hydorgen - yet.
But I can assure - my dear Joe - that I will get on it - Research it - and get back to ya - ASAP.
Why now that I think about it - Joe - I'll just get on the phone
and give Bob Lutz a call. I'm quite sure that he will Know
About Hydrogen - and furthermore - I Believe that ole Bob will want to bend my ear about it.
Now if ya want to Really hear what Bob Lutz - and the Others - have to say about Electric Cars - and how they will Impact the Future Of The Economy of Our Really Great Country - check out last Friday's Real Time With Bill
Maher - you can access it through hbowatch.com.
Or here's a better idea - Joe - talk to Bill Maher himself. He drives an Electric Car around L.A.
I'd ask him myself but I've never met him - he's litte hard to get ahold of - has a Million Followers - or so I've heard.
I don't understand why Obama doesn't just sink the entire assets of the United States into the development of a starship that could be parked in synchronous orbit and take care of ALL our energy needs forever.
Mr/Ms Ranger,
President Obama has already tried to do just that, but the specific position in synchronous orbit above the US of A that would be needed is already leased to the N.R.A. for their 'Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator' platform.
Priorities are priorities after all!
The lease is up in 2014.
No, let's let the Japanese and Koreans subsidize their production and grab the market.
That's Rethug vision for you.
You guys need to get off the short bus.
LR - Now that is the First Sensible Thing that I have heard ya say - in a Long Time.
Ducky how can we subsidize business when we subsidize half the population?
Lisa, I tried to put a propositional calculus on that nonsense but it makes no sense.
As bad a president as Obama is, he'd make an even worse businessman. His endorsement of a green business is a kiss of death. They invariable go belly up.
Bojangles Drakelet's here said,
".....No, let's let the Japanese and Koreans subsidize their production and grab the market......"
What market?
The North Americans and Europeans are willing to make enormous personal sacrifices to live a 'Green' lifestyle as long as they do not have to make any enormous personal sacrifices.
Am I a cynic?
By the way, the Japanese and South Koreans 'subsidise'. The North Koreans adopt the Yankee spelling 'subsidize'. What does this tell you?
Yeah Aquarius, like here was no market in solar. That's gone to China.
Buy a freaking vowel.
The 'market' for Solar was destined for China no matter what.
China has cheaper labour expense.
The 'market' to which I referred was for electric vehicles in North America and Europe.
You should, by now, understand that I pixellate sarcasm, irony and hyperbolic cynicism. When you read me think Jon Stewart or that Colbert Papist. This should help.
"Buy a freaking vowel" ??
Some sort of Yankee idiom I reckon?
I, personally, have made many sacrifices to live a green lifestyle. For instance, I disposed of my Blackberry, in an environmentally friendly manner of course, and built my own eco-friendly version. Mine is made from wood and real black berries and powered by cat nuggets I salvage from the litter box. To help the planet, I also compiled code for the Nintendo Wii video game platform to produce a game which actually controls a real child in Ecuador who plants trees to replenish the rain forest. The player can choose the type of tree, where it is planted, and how often it is watered. You shake the controller to make Diego plant faster.
Speaking of Research In Motion, my English Tutor plays as a Day-Trader in RIMM stock on the NASDAQ. So far he has lost both sleeves and the collar on his shirt. What a dolt.
Lone Ranger accidently made sense on March 5.
There are more mineral resources, more fresh water and more free, renewable energy sources available throughout the rest of the solar system than there is here on Earth.
It makes an incredible amount of sense to go get them and bring them here.
Which is exactly what the Chinese plan to do.
We will still be arguing over drilling for dinosaur oil in Alaska while China is mining a nickle-iron asteroid in near earth orbit, beaming solar power down to our energy grid via microwaves and harvesting fresh water from passing comets and lunar craters.
China will rule this planet because our leaders can't pull their heads out of their posteriors, look to the future, see the big picture and COMPROMISE! Make deals! Get things done!
Instead, they would rather argue over who can do what to whom in the privacy of their own homes.
The stupid people are comdemning us to irrelevancy.
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