|
The Follies and Foibles of the Chevy Volt. The Volt is a very heavy, needlessly complex compact hybrid with a battery range of 25-50 miles. Many misconceptions about its drive mechanisms are still floating about — apparently abetted by GM — but the fact remains that when the Volt's battery-only range is exhausted, its weak onboard gasoline engine, which requires premium fuel, directly drives the vehicle. A full battery recharge takes up to 12 hours on 110 volt house current, but about five hours with a special, high voltage charger, an option available at only $2000, not including installation. All this for around $41,000 minus a federal tax credit of $7,500. Volt sales fall in January. General Motors extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt had its worst sales month since August, as negative publicity over fire risks hurt vehicles sales in January. GM sold just 603 Volts — above its sales in January 2011, but far below GM's best-ever sales month in December, when GM sold 1,529 Volts. Leaf & Volt Sales: January 2012. Volt sales are less than 40% of the 1529 units sold in December. GM is suffering the fallout from stories that the vehicles can catch fire after accidents, and sales are so soft, GM dealers are turning away cars they can't sell. Electric Cars: Doubling Down On Dumb. Once again, the regulators in California have decided to lead the nation in terms of vehicle emission standards, proposing to require that 15.4 percent of all vehicles sold by 2025 must be electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars, or (currently non-existent) fuel cell cars. In case you're wondering why this all sounds familiar, it's because California is re-running the same delusional program that it ran in 1990... An Administration's Green Fiascos Pile Up. Even the much-ballyhooed Chevy Volt has turned into a disaster. Fire hazards aside, there is simply no demand for the vehicle beyond some arms of government, a few corporations with cash to waste and rich, tree-hugging celebrities who can afford the luxury of pretentiousness. Chevrolet hoped to sell 10,000 Volts in 2011. Actual sales amounted to 7,671 units. GM has temporarily laid off 1,200 workers on the Volt production line and is considering slowing down production. The Failed Chevy Volt That Just Won't Go Away. People who have looked into the history of automobiles have noted that while electric cars have never managed to rival internal combustion cars for their performance, comfort, reliability, or customer-attractiveness, they persist in inspiring a small segment of the public. And would-be social engineers have always loved them. As Robert Bryce points out in his book Power Hungry, electric cars are the "Next Big Thing. And they always will be." California Issues Clown Car Mandate. Golden State regulators have passed sweeping emission standards requiring one in seven new cars sold in the state in 2025 be an electric or other zero-emission vehicle. ... [I]f we've learned anything in recent years, it's that industrial policy and telling consumers what they need and must have vs. what they want and find useful doesn't work. Only the marketplace can accurately pick winners and losers. The government, having no competition, usually picks losers. We have also learned that climate change is an overhyped fantasy based on ideology rather than science. Obama the promise breaker. Government Motors predicted it would sell 10,000 Chevy Volts last year, but the public wasn't quite so keen on the idea of paying $40,000 for a fancy golf cart. Even with taxpayers chipping in up to $11,000 to reduce the sticker shock, the wealthy liberals who bought the plug-in hybrid didn't hit the target. GM ended up selling closer to 7,600 Volts, a figure that includes significant fleet sales to state and local governments. The Nissan Leaf electric car also failed to top the 10,000 mark. ... By comparison, Ford sold 516,369 F-150 pickup trucks, Chevy sold 367,343 Silverados and Dodge sold 218,750 Rams in 2011. Even the dealers don't want them! U.S. Auto dealerships turning away Chevy Volts. According to numerous auto trade reports, a number of U.S. car dealerships are turning away the Chevy Volt. Despite the fact that General Motor's Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson who will testify to Congress on Wednesday [1/25/2012] and tell lawmakers that the Volt is a safe plug-in hybrid vehicle, there is little confidence his testimony will do much in terms of a bottom line for the Volt at local dealerships across America. Chevy Volt Battery Issue The Next Solyndra? Is a new Solyndra brewing in the halls of power in Washington? One might think so with word today of a new report released by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. According to Bloomberg, this report basically accuses the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a cover up of sorts over the battery fire issue the NHTSA just closed its investigation on last week. Electric carmaker Think, battery firm Ener1 fall into bankruptcy. The view from inside Think City's plant here is the worst nightmare for politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth: 100 cars, most of them not finished, lined up with no word on their future. Only two years ago the tiny Think cars (two can fit in a regular parking space) were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas guzzling recreational vehicles. Electric-Car Firm That Got Biden Visit, $118M in Stimulus, Files for Bankruptcy. Ener1 — a company that manufactures batteries for electric cars, and that received $118.5 million in federal stimulus money, and that Vice President Joe Biden visited last year the day after President Obama's State of the Union Address — announced today [1/26/2012] that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Obama-backed electric car battery-maker files for bankruptcy. An Indiana-based energy-storage company, whose subsidiary received a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department, filed for bankruptcy Thursday [1/26/2012]. Ener1 is asking a federal bankruptcy court in New York to approve a plan to restructure the company's debt and infuse $81 million in equity funding. Obama-backed car battery company files for bankruptcy protection. Ener1, an electric car battery company that the Obama administration awarded a $118 million stimulus grant to expand its operations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday [1/26/2012] after being unable to repay pressing debts. The news comes one year after Vice President Biden visited the company's new battery plant in Indiana to highlight its progress with federal funds. Volt safety sparks talk of federal conspiracy. The apparent safety woes of the much-touted, all-electric Chevrolet Volt touched off a firestorm on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, as House Republicans charged that the Obama administration conspired with General Motors Co. to conceal those risks from consumers while pushing the vehicle as part of the "green" future. Some Chevy dealers spurn Volt allocation. Some Chevrolet dealers are turning down Volts that General Motors wants to ship to them, a potential stumbling block as GM looks to accelerate sales of the plug-in hybrid. Do electric-car drivers deserve special parking spaces? Many drivers cruise aimlessly trying to find a parking spot. Not electric-car drivers. Today, more shopping malls and stadium operators are adding special spaces where electric cars can be parked and recharged. Is that fair? Fox News poses the interesting question and says that in some cases, the special spaces for electric vehicles are even closer to building entrances than those for the handicapped. Unplug the Volt. This $40,000 plug-in hybrid can travel 35 miles on battery power, a feat enabling smug owners -- their average annual salary is $175,000 — to pretend that their emissions are pure. Of course, instead of coming out the tailpipe, the unwanted carbon-dioxide molecules are instead released at the power plant, which is generally coal-fired well outside their view. The well-heeled also enjoy the belief that their plug-in technology is modernly superior to anything else on the road, even though companies like Waverly Electric Motor Vehicles and Columbia Electric Vehicles produced cars with better range than the Volt in the year 1901. It didn't catch on then, and it won't catch on now because electric cars makes zero economic sense. Prius wagon sales quickly top GM Volt. Toyota Motor Corp. scored a quick victory in 2011 as U.S. deliveries of its Prius v wagon in 10 weeks topped sales of General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid that was available all year. A Jolt for GM's Volt? Car-Pool Access. Chevrolet engineers made modifications to the Volt's exhaust system and expect by March to begin selling models that meet California's stringent emissions standards, allowing California buyers to qualify for a $1,500 state rebate on top of a $7,500 federal tax break. New Chevy Volt Scam: GM reduces Volt emissions to capture California taxpayer cash. ... The emission reduction is meaningless; there will be no improvements to public health or the environment. This is just a scam to rip-off taxpayers. There are more charging points than electric cars in UK as sales slump. Sales of electric cars have slumped so badly that there are now more charging points than vehicles on the road. Just 2,149 electric cars have been sold since 2006, despite a government scheme last year offering customers up to £5,000 towards the cost of a vehicle. The Department for Transport says that around 2,500 charging points have been installed, although their precise location is not known. GM may put brakes on Volt electric vehicle production. General Motors is closely watching sales of its Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle and will adjust its production of the car accordingly, potentially by June, according to a report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. Actually, it sounds like the company's Volt electric vehicles may be available strictly on a build-to-order basis in the future. GM says wait until summer to see if Volt is a flop? Continued negative press — not to mention post-crash-test fires and production-line upgrades — conspired to produce first-year sales figures a little lower than GM had hoped. Does that mean the Chevrolet Volt is a sales flop? According to GM's Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, it's too early to tell. Chevy Recalls More Volts Than They Actually Sold. They are recalling "around 8000" Volts for minor "structural repairs," because, as it turns out, part of the vehicle's GreenSmart technology involves catching on fire and murdering you, which turns out to have been the hit it was planned to be. They've sold 7,671 of the short-range vehicles/rolling immolation murder-carts, so they seem to be recalling more vehicles than actually sold. Chevy Volt will receive safety enhancements, but don't call it a recall. The Chevrolet Volt is about to get safer. That's the big message from GM today as the company announced structural and cooling system "safety enhancements" that are intended to better distribute the car's energy load from a crash and, thus, better protect the battery from potential fires. Total Recall: Recalls happen, but they are typically done at the expense of the business and not the taxpayer. The Mackinac Center released a study compiling all state and federal taxpayer giveaways for the creation and production of the Chevy Volt. In sum, the taxpayer contributed $250,000 for each Chevy Volt. The Chevy Volt is Barack Obama's Edsel. GM has set high corporate hopes for the car, anticipating at least 10,000 sales in its first year on the market. But the Volt's prestige quickly faded once it hit showrooms. It was recently dubbed one of the "worst product flops of 2011" by the blog 24/7 Wall St, which noted that "[o]nly 125 models were sold in July 2011" at a time when GM was disingenuously claiming the vehicle was wildly popular. Despite a $7,500 taxpayer credit for buyers, Volt's hefty $39,000 price tag is beyond the reach of many middle-class drivers. As a result, only 7,671 were sold — many of which were purchased by the federal government. The actual number sold to parties not connected to the taxpayer-funded entities was somewhat lower. Low Voltage Sales For the Subsidy Mobile. The idea is that many of the heavy-duty government expenses were made up front, so once enough units are sold, all those millions will even out to only a few bucks per unit. $250,000 per unit might seem like a lot of money to force taxpayers to pump into a car that stickers for about $41,000, and is purchased by people whose average income is $170,000 per year, but eventually we shall Win The Future, and it will all seem like money well spent. Except... it doesn't look like those rosy GM sales projections for the Volt are panning out. At all. Obama gets two 'awards' for worst product failures of 2011. [T]wo autos pushed by Obama's government-directed auto companies won slots No. 3 and No. 6 on Yahoo!'s "Worst Product Flops of 2011." The No. 3 prize went to the battery-powered Chevy Volt, which had been touted by Obama as the green-tech model for future vehicles. It is being built by General Motors — which is still partially-owned by the federal government — but the company only sold 7,000 of the cars by December. Company managers had predicted sales of 10,000. AP Source: GM to call back 8,000 Chevy Volts. General Motors is advising Volt owners to return their electric cars to dealers for repairs that will lower the risk of battery fires. GM's Chevy Volt Misses 2011 U.S. Sales Goal as Safety Probed. General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt missed its U.S. sales target of 10,000 cars in 2011, the company said. Chevy dealers sold 1,529 of the plug-in hybrids last month, leaving the brand 2,329 shy of its goal. A slow production increase kept dealers in short supply until December, and a federal investigation of three fires that occurred after Volt crash tests lowered demand for the car, according to Bandon, Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research Inc. U.S. dealers sold a total of 7,671 Volts last year. Gore-mobile recalled as a fire hazard. Crony capitalism not only is a pain in the national wallet, but products from crony capitalists pose a physical danger. Fisker Automotive — fronted by Democratic eco-millionaire Al Gore — received a half-billion federal "loan" 2 years ago to make luxury electric cars. Not only was this a sweetheart from the Obama administration, but the deal financed the manufacture of unsafe electric lemons. Obamacar for the 1 Percent. The real scandal behind this week's latest electric-car barbecue is a reminder that taxpayer dollars are being burned up to subsidize wealthy Americans' dreams of owning a $100,000 sports sedan. "California-based Fisker said Thursday it is recalling 239 plug-in electric hybrid cars because a misaligned battery part could lead to a fire," reports the Detroit News today [12/30/2011]. "It comes just a month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal investigation into fire risks in General Motors Co.'s plug-in hybrid, the Chevrolet Volt." Fisker Recalling 239 Karma Plug-In Hybrids for Fire Hazard. Fisker Automotive is recalling all 239 of its 2012 Karma luxury plug-in hybrid cars because of a fire hazard, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prices on the 2012 model start at $103,000, including the destination charge. Angry Hybrid Owner Suing Honda Saying Car Doesn't Get 51 MPG. Heather Peters is taking Honda to small claims court for what she says are the fuel economy shortcomings of her Civic Hybrid. When she originally purchased the vehicle, she did so in the hopes that it would save her money at the gas pump. However, Peters claims that the car does not deliver the advertised 51 miles per gallon (mpg) highway and 46 mpg city fuel efficiency. A Honda Civic Lesson. Heather Peters is hopping mad at Honda. She says her '06 hybrid Civic's actual mileage more than just varied: About 30 MPG vs. the EPA (and Honda) advertised 50 MPG. So she's going after Honda in court — small claims court — for $10,000. Which is the maximum payday she can get there. Honda is concerned because if Peters wins, other hybrid owners may use the same tactic... ObamaCar Sticker Shock: Taxpayers Taken For A Ride. At a time when Democrats are blaming the GOP for blocking a payroll tax cut deal that will add $40 in the average paycheck, they have no problem taking that worker's tax dollars to make and subsidize what we once called an electric Edsel bought by a precious few with an average income of $170,000. "Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it — a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up to $250K Per Vehicle. Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it — a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Chevy Volt subsidy amps up wealthy. The buyers of Chevrolet's taxpayer-subsidized Chevy Volt hybrid have an average income of $170,000, but still receive thousands in tax breaks for their purchases. The wealthy buyers of the Volt each get a $7,500 tax credit for buying the car. The number of people who get the subsidy is unknown, because the company does not say how many of its buyers are individuals who pay taxes, as opposed to companies or government agencies. The Volt Re-Evaluated: $250,000 Per Car. I've long been fascinated by the sad tale of the Chevy Volt, a heavily subsidized electric car nobody wants. It's one of the purest, most perfect examples of government attempting to artificially create a marketplace, and failing miserably. Chevy Volt: No Profits, Few Sales, Four Fires and One Big Cover-Up. It has now been one year since General Motors (GM) first delivered the Chevy Volt to market. And what a year it's been. The Volt makes GM literally no money — it costs $41,000 to make, and sells for $41,000. And they are selling far fewer than GM's announced expectations. At least in part because (at least) four Volts have burst into flames — two in April, and two in November. And GM and the Barack Obama Administration knew about the fires since (at least) June — and said nothing until November. Are Chevy Volt Fleet Sales Latest Evidence of GM Deception? Sales for the Chevy Volt have been stagnant and it has become apparent that lack of supply is not the reason. GM CEO Dan Akerson is responsible for tying the success of GM into the success of the Volt by having made lofty claims that the vehicle was, in fact, the future of the company while investing a major portion of marketing dollars to help support the perception. Deception was evident as statements were made that the vehicle was "virtually" sold out and supply couldn't keep up with demand, while evidence surfaced that this was not the case. Consumer Reports' Chevy Volt Safety Double Standard. The latest internet headlines to hit regarding CR and the Volt tout that the Volt, as well as the Nissan Leaf, are "cheaper to run" than gasoline cars. CR supplies a chart that uses hypothetical driving circumstances that benefit the Volt and only assumes gas usage as the "cost" of a vehicle. Usually, cost of operating or owning a vehicle would take into consideration the price of the vehicle and depreciation, the most important aspects of net costs. It is ludicrous to suggest that the Chevy Volt, which cost over $40,000, saves owners money over similar gas vehicles which are priced about half as much. Chevy Volt Uses No Gas — Unless it's Cold Out. Here's another surprise for Chevy Volt owners. Autoblog reports that General Motors is holding an online chat with Volt owners about winter driving. Part of the chat reveals that, despite the fact that GM claimed the Volt is purely electric for a range of about 35 miles, the vehicle will use gas in cold conditions. GM states, "Please be aware: when starting your Volt in these colder months, in some instances, your gas engine may engage regardless of the state of charge of the battery." Coda: Code for a Trojan horse. Much of the electric car, pitched as an 'all American' green vehicle, is made in China. ... From a jobs perspective, the Coda's arrival means this: American electric carmakers such as California-based Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors, along with the GM Volt and Ford's Focus Electric, will compete on home soil with a company benefiting from all of the unfair trade practices China has used to bury so many other American industries — from toys, textiles and machine tools to electronic assemblers and, most recently, solar panels. These practices range from currency manipulation to reported illegal export subsidies, counterfeiting, pollution and widespread worker abuses. The Volt Administration. Perhaps the signature energy policy of the Obama administration was the Chevy Volt — the electric car that the Obama administration tried to bribe Americans (with their own tax money) to buy. These "green" cars, we were assured, were going to transform American industry and energy use. Sucking huge subsidies from taxpayers, the Volts nevertheless sold (or rather, didn't sell) for an eye-popping $41,000. But in crash testing, it seems the Volts have a nasty habit of bursting into flames — taking all of those government subsidies, to say nothing of the passengers — down with them. The metaphor is irresistible. 8 Reasons Why The Electric Car Will Not Be A Success Anytime Soon. [#2] Charge Time: In the case of the Leaf, once the battery is depleted it can take up to 20 hours to completely recharge on a 120 volt outlet, according to Nissan. On a 240 volt, it takes seven hours, and a 480 volt fast charge station takes 30 minutes. In our instant gratification broadband society, even waiting 30 minutes is an eternity. We timed a fuel stop in our personal car and it takes approximately four minutes. Volt hysteria: Why image and perception are everything. The idea that advancements in automobile battery technology would come in bunches and that we'd see remarkable, jaw-dropping improvements on the order of the explosion in computer technology and such was a nice dream to hang on to if you were a rabid idealist who graduated from the "finger snap" school of contemporary thought. But it wasn't realistic in the least. The technology involved in vehicle electrification is massively complicated and involved. And development of the technology, though racing along at a feverish pace, is coming up far short of the pipe dream schedule imagined by the green intelligentsia. Charging stations for electric cars are mostly idle. Charging stations installed with a share of taxpayers' money are twice as plentiful across Tennessee today as the number of electric cars they're designed to refuel, and most of the units go unused for hours or days at a time. Car registration data show that 270 all-electric cars of various brands have been registered in Tennessee this year — 81 in Davidson and Williamson counties combined — but there are about 500 chargers available in public places to serve them. Time for government to come clean on Chevy Volt fire probe. NHTSA is investigating three fires in Volt battery packs following collision tests, but it may have withheld information about this potential safety problem from the public for several months. Consumers had a right to know if the Chevy Volt was dangerous before it came to market, and the public has a right to know if the NHTSA is currently doing its job. Two recent Chevrolet Volt fires finally prompted NHTSA to launch a formal investigation of what has been called GM's "crown jewel." For Obama's green-car revolution, fits and starts. The Obama administration has poured roughly $5 billion in taxpayer funds into the electric-car industry, offering incentives to manufacturers, their suppliers and even car buyers who might want to go green. But analysts say the risk is rising that taxpayers in many cases will not see a return on their money soon, if ever. Instead, they warn that some federally subsidized companies could be forced to shut down in coming months. Electric Car Startup Aptera Closes Shop. The California company was counting on a federal loan — and private investments to match the loan -- so that it could start producing its very first electric vehicle. Aptera said it was close to securing a $150 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, but it couldn't line up the private dollars necessary to complete the loan application process. Fire Sale on Electric Cars! Electric-car sales are on fire. Okay, well, only a few electric cars have actually gone up in smoke. But with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opening a formal safety investigation into fears about fires started by the much-hyped Chevrolet Volt, it's become clear yet again that electric vehicles are The Next Big Thing — and they always will be. Chevy Volt tops owner satisfaction survey. The Chevrolet Volt, General Motors' plug-in car, topped the rankings in the latest Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey. The survey asked new car owners how likely they would be to purchase the same vehicle again. In the case of the Chevy Volt, 93% of owners said they would "definitely" buy the car again. The Editor says... That's because the few people who have bought Chevy Volts are environmentalist zealots who would be satisfied with it even if it had a range of five miles between charges. That's also the sort of person who reads Consumer Reports. Chevy Volt misses 2011 sales goal. General Motors admitted Thursday [12/1/2011] that it won't sell the 10,000 Chevrolet Volts that it had hoped to sell in 2011, and said that it would buy the plug-in electric car back from any customer fearful about its safety. GM willing to buy back Volts. General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company's CEO said Thursday [12/1/2011]. Is the Chevy Volt the New Corvair? The Chevy Volt has earned some criticism because of resentment against the General Motors bailout. But there's plenty of deserved criticism, too. The Obama administration has poured millions into auto battery technology that gets no better mileage than the 1896 Roberts electric car. There's a chance, therefore, the Chevy Volt will join other failed cars of the past in the rust bin of auto history. G.M. Declares Chevy Volt Safe. General Motors executives on Monday defended the safety of Chevrolet Volt batteries that are under federal investigation for post-crash fires, and said it would provide free loaner cars to Volt owners worried about their vehicles. E-Car Fires: Big Bump In The Road. When the Toyota Prius was being accused of having overlooked design flaws that were causing accelerators to get stuck with fatal results, the owners of Government Motors, a competitor, wasted little time pushing for a recall and congressional hearings while accusing Toyota of cutting corners for the sake of corporate profits. We wonder if the same sense of urgency will prevail in the wake of new safety tests indicating that an earlier test in which a Chevy Volt experienced a battery fire three weeks after a side-impact test was no fluke and that the car's lithium-ion battery poses a fire hazard. Battery fires prompt govt probe of Chevy Volt. New fires involving the lithium-ion batteries in General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt have prompted an investigation to assess the risk of fire in the electric car after a serious crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday [11/25/2011]. Chevy Volt recall? With developments on Monday [11/28/2011], it is clear that the federal government is recalling these electric cars because of fears that long after they have an accident they will burst into flames. Spontaneous combustion is a huge problem that makes these the Electric Vegas (as one commenter put it) as dangerous as they are impractical. GM Offering Loaner Cars To Worried Chevrolet Volt Owners. General Motors is contacting every owner of a Chevrolet Volt to assure them the extended-range electric car is safe and allay fears it could catch fire after a crash. In addition, GM is going to give any owner who still has concerns another GM car while the federal investigation of Volt is underway. The offer came on a conference call with reporters this morning [11/28/2011]. The Editor says... Look on the bright side: It won't take that long to contact everybody who owns a Volt. Volt owners offered free loaner cars from GM. General Motors says it will offer free loaner cars to Chevrolet Volt owners if they're concerned about the cars catching fire. Chevy Volt Again Suspected in House Fire. Cars in Depth reports that the Chevy Volt and it's charging station are suspected as possible causes for a house fire that started in the garage of a Mooresville, NC home. According to the report, investigators found a Volt plugged into a charging station located in the burned out garage. The Iredell County Fire Marshal's office investigating the fire states, "The charging station was in the known area of origin, but the cause of the fire has not been officially determined." Duke Energy Warns Customers to Not Use EV Charging Stations. After a house fire in Mooresville, NC which started in the home's garage was traced the the area near a charging station for an electric vehicle, WSOC-TV reported that Duke Energy, which installed the Siemens built charging station, has warned customers to not use similar units while the investigation into the fire proceeds. When fire investigators went through the burned out garage, they found a Chevy Volt plugged into the 240 volt station, the second garage fire reportedly involving a Volt. Since it was not the only electrical appliance plugged in that area of the garage, the charging station may not be at fault. Obama's Energy Plan: Chevy Volt. Money is tight as we enter this holiday season, so few of us will wake up on Christmas morning to find a Chevy Volt, wrapped in a large green bow sitting in our driveway. But, that may be a good thing, considering recent incidences involving Volts or their chargers, catching fire. ... The Volt, just like everything else the government produces, underperforms and is overpriced. In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, automobile expert Edward Niedermeyer wrote the Volt "offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car." Are Electric Cars An Explosion Risk? Safety and environmental concerns have been used by the administration to kill or delay fossil fuel energy projects such as offshore drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian tar sands oil and a minimum of 20,00 jobs to the U.S. market. Will electric car technology receive the same level of scrutiny and concern? Volt fire could lead to new safety rules. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday it had investigated a fire that occurred in Wisconsin this spring, after the Volt extended-range electric vehicle underwent a 20 m.p.h., side-impact test for its five-star crash safety rating. The crash punctured the Volt's lithium-ion battery pack, and after more than three weeks of sitting outside, the vehicle and several cars around it caught fire. No one was hurt. Batteries in Electric Cars Examined After Chevy Volt Fire. Federal safety regulators said Friday [11/11/2011] that they were examining lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars because a Chevrolet Volt ignited three weeks after it underwent a crash test. One more selling point for Chevy Volt; batteries catch fire. The Volt has been such a spectacular failure that only a few thousand vehicles are on the road. I'm sure GM can fix this problem quickly. If they don't, a new word for failure will enter the lexicon of auto terms; "Man, that car is a real Volt." House fire spurs Duke Energy to stop electric car charging across NC. A house fire in Lake Norman is attracting national attention. Teams from the federal government and from some of the nation's biggest companies are on the scene wanting to find out the cause. It's what was in the garage that has investigators concerned. Investigators are trying to find out if an electric car charging station is to blame. Drive your electric car as much as you like, but you might have trouble when you recharge it. After fire, Duke Energy says don't use car charging stations. Duke Energy is asking customers who own their electric car charging station to stop using the product after a house fire in Mooresville last month. Duke Energy sent an e-mail to about 125 customers in the Carolinas and Indiana who currently participate in their plug-in electric vehicle pilots and have the same type of charging station installed at their homes to stop using it. Another Burning Chevy Volt Destroys NC House. That's right, this is the second Volt so far to consume itself -- that we know of. After fire involving Siemens Charger and Chevy Volt... Duke Energy Warns Customers to Not Use EV Charging Stations. After a house fire in Mooresville, NC which started in the home's garage was traced the the area near a charging station for an electric vehicle, WSOC-TV reported that Duke Energy, which installed the Siemens built charging station, has warned customers to not use similar units while the investigation into the fire proceeds. The high-voltage hype of electric cars. David Whiston of Morningstar thought he'd look at how quickly consumers will embrace electric vehicles, which sell for thousands of dollars more than cars of comparable size and features. He concluded that the internal combustion engine is a long way from the junkyard. Consider the pure electric car from Nissan, the Leaf. It has a price of about $27,700 and an advertised range of 100 miles. But the range depends on speed, terrain and whether the air conditioner is on. For most driving, the range might be just 60 to 80 miles, Nissan reports on the car's website. Alaska's Billion Dollar Mountain. There are 17 rare earth metals on the periodic table, divided between "heavy" and "light" based on their atomic weight, the heavies being far more rare and expensive. Together they're referred to as technology metals. In the 1980s research in rare earths led to the revolution in electronic miniaturization. ... They're in military technology and in electric cars, too: About two kilograms of neodymium and dysprosium make the motor run in a Prius. Volt drains power from economy, Obama's 2012 campaign. The White House's green technology revolution is sitting in an auto lot in Butler, Pa., and nobody is buying. "Nobody comes in to ask, nobody comes in to look ... The American people are smarter than the government — they're not buying that car," said Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who owns the auto lot where one of General Motors' combined electric-and-gasoline powered Volt autos sits unwanted, unsold and unused. The Chevy Volt would cost its buyer almost $40,000 — even after a $7,500 federal check — and that's more than twice the price of a comparable Chevy Cruze, Kelly told The Daily Caller. GOP Cops Raid the Green Casino. In a shrewd political move, GOP candidate Mitt Romney has called for an investigation into federal loans to luxury carmakers Fisker and Tesla. While the investigation is unlikely to turn up anything illegal, what Romney's investigation will keep reminding Americans is that the scandal is legal. Green Energy's Bad Karma. With the administration's approval, the recipient of another half-billion-dollar loan to build electric cars is outsourcing the work and any jobs that might be created or saved to Finland. Where do the stimulus horror stories end? [Scroll down] In the second new stimulus program scandal this week, the Obama administration gave electric car maker Fisker Automotive a $529 million loan guarantee to build vehicles in the United States. At the time, Vice President Biden claimed "this is seed money that will return back to the American consumer in billions and billions and billions of dollars in good new jobs." But the rest of the story came out this week when Fisker officials acknowledged that most of the 500 jobs being created are actually in Finland. More Obama Jobs Idiocy: Funding Electric Cars Built in Finland! With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work. Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. "Solyndra On Wheels". Yesterday a guy whose name appears to be Andrew Fox happened to see a very cool car where he lives in the D.C. area, and took the trouble to investigate. As a result, he highlighted an Obama administration boondoggle that in some respects is worse than Solyndra ... The Obama administration has invested $529 million in taxpayer money to help develop the Fisker Karma. That's right -- it's another "green jobs" scam, except that if any jobs are being saved or created, they are in Finland and China. Will Fisker Motors Be Another Solyndra? With Hyundai, Toyota, Porsche, and GM building hybrids, why is the government funding an automotive startup? Fisker's people believe that they can build a car with more consumer appeal. Are they right? The market will let them know, just like it has for Chevy's Volt. There are two considerations involved. First is the Karma itself, and second is the government loan in light of the Solyndra revelations. Did someone mention Solyndra? Fisker Karma Electric Car Gets Worse Mileage Than an SUV. The Fisker Karma electric car, developed mainly with your tax money so that a bunch of rich VC's wouldn't have to risk any real money, has rolled out with an nominal EPA MPGe of 52 in all electric mode (we will ignore the gasoline engine for this analysis). Not bad? Unfortunately, it's a sham. Energy Department Defends Loan to Company Building Electric Cars in Finland. The Department of Energy is standing by a $529 million loan guarantee to a company building an electric car line in Finland. A department official, in a lengthy response posted on a government blog Thursday night [10/20/2011], confirmed that the company Fisker is assembling its Karma electric car at its "overseas facility." The response comes after ABC News reported that the Obama administration gave the green light for the company to move the manufacturing to Finland two years after announcing the loan. The Fisker Karma's 20 M.P.G. Sticker: A Scarlet Letter? With its range-extender gasoline engine engaged, the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid was rated this week by the Environmental Protection Agency at just 20 miles per gallon. The E.P.A. figure was first reported by the blog GreenCarReports.com. 115-year-old electric car gets same 40 miles to the charge as Chevy Volt. Meet the Roberts electric car. Built in 1896, it gets a solid 40 miles to the charge — exactly the mileage Chevrolet advertises for the Volt — the much-touted $31,645 electric car General Motors CEO Dan Akerson called "not a step forward, but a leap forward." The executives at Chevrolet can rest easy for now. Since the Roberts was constructed in an age before Henry Ford's mass production, the 115-year-old electric car is one of a kind. GM announces Chevy Spark fully electric car. General Motors, maker of the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, will sell a small totally electric car beginning in 2013, the automaker announced Wednesday [10/12/2011]. The Chevy Spark EV will be sold in limited markets in the U.S. and other countries, GM said. Hybrid car sales: Lots of options, few takers. For all the excitement generated by every new hybrid car introduction, there is one little problem. In case you haven't noticed, hardly anyone is buying them. The market share for hybrid cars peaked in 2009 at 2.8% of all new vehicles sold. GM considers building Volt in China. General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said Tuesday [9/27/2011] the Detroit automaker may assemble its extended-range Chevrolet Volt in China, if Chinese consumers embrace the vehicle. Chevy Volt sales don't have expected spark. General Motors insists it will sell 10,000 Chevrolet Volts in the U.S. by the end of this year, but as of now, the numbers don't look good. By the end of August, the last time GM publicly announced its sales, about 3,500 Volts had been sold. To reach 10,000, GM will need to average about 1,700 Volts per month for the last four months of the year. Tesla's business plan: Riding on fumes. This Saturday [10/1/2011], Tesla Motors is holding a test drive to reveal the latest versions of its second zero-emission automobile, the all-electric four-door Model S to several thousand reservation holders. Tesla has made some extraordinary claims for the car, and analysts and investors will be watching the event closely to see if it can live up to them. Top 10 Green Job Fiascos. The bailout that General Motors received from the government came with a price: The carmaker was tasked to create the ultimate green vehicle. The result — the Chevy Volt — is a product with an exorbitant price tag that nobody wants to buy. $25 billion green-car fund dodges bullet. A large green-car loan fund that was created in the Bush years and which began dispensing money under the Obama White House dodged a bullet late Monday [9/26/2011]. But the spotlight turned on the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program in this dispute may keep the fund in the cross hairs for the next budget showdown. Shutdown For What? According to DOE, almost $1 billion in loans have gone to two companies — Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors — that specialize in super high-end luxury electric cars. The Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid has a base price of around $95,000; Tesla's Roadster starts at $109,000. Another $6 billion in loans went to Ford, a company that turned in a $6.6 billion profit in 2010 — its largest in more than a decade. And $1.4 billion went to Nissan to help it crank out the Leaf, the all-electric car that's had a grand total of 6,187 sales in its first eight months — despite $7,500 in federal tax credits to buyers. Electric Vehicles Led by Leaf Fail to Connect Consumers. Klaus Doerrzapf, who has solar panels on his home, has no plans for an emission-free car in his garage. He's one of the reasons why automakers like Nissan Motor Co. won't recoup investments in electric vehicles anytime soon. "It's too early," the 50-year-old manager at an electrics company said at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. "Range and price are a problem. 30-minute Leaf chargers soon will trickle into TN. The first of 30 fast chargers for electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf will be installed in Tennessee next month, with the rest to follow by the end of the year as the automaker ramps up deliveries of the car in 15 states. All-electric Coda: First Chinese-made car comes to U.S.. After years of anticipation, the first Chinese-built car is finally being offered for sale in the U.S. But far from being the vanguard of an invasion of cheap Chinese cars that U.S. automakers once feared, the Coda sedan, as the model is being called, is a pricey niche model: a $44,900 all-electric sedan. Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan. A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000. The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. UH-MC receives $300,000 grant for electric cars. The University of Hawaii Maui College has received a nearly $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to work with the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and private industry to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in Hawaii. Obama Crony Socialism on Parade. [Scroll down] GM is now neck-deep in "green" non-energy energy. Of the oh-so-successful Solyndra sort. They last year received more clean (non-energy) energy patents than any other organization. They are dramatically ramping up production of the unprofitable and unselling hybrid Chevy Volt. And creating a like-model for Cadillac. They have fitted an (again, unprofitable) Volt plant so as to be solar-powered. Which cost $3 million — but only saves them $15,000 a year in electricity. Read his lips: No new jobs. U.S. auto companies would be producing more SUVs and trucks, both popular with car buyers, and fewer electric cars if Obama hadn't intervened. That practically nobody, except the federal government, is lining up to buy electric cars — that's seemingly irrelevant to the president. What's important is that Obama — government — knows what's best for the future of the auto industry. The shocking truth about electric cars. [Scroll down] Electric cars aren't necessarily green at all. Electric vehicles require large amounts of electricity — so much that Toronto Hydro chief Anthony Haines says he doesn't know how he'd get it. "If you connect about 10 per cent of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails," he said recently. And if the extra electricity isn't generated by renewable energy, then overall carbon dioxide emissions will go up, not down, [University of Manitoba's] Prof. [Vaclav] Smil says. AAA Plans Electric-Vehicle Charger Trucks. AAA, the largest U.S. motorist group, plans to deploy fast-charging trucks to aid drivers of electric vehicles such as Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf when their batteries run down. Scientist died after G-Wiz car imploded. The husband of an Imperial College academic told his wife to 'get off her phone' moments before she was killed in a crash. Judit Nagy, 47, died when her tiny electric car, a G-Wiz, collided with a Skoda Octavia as she made her way to the parents' evening of one of her four children. The Editor says... This is where a tiny car will take you — to the morgue! On the other hand, the victim was talking on the phone and wasn't wearing a seat belt, so she could have been killed in any car. Where Will We Plug In? Electric cars, which have come and gone at least twice since the dawn of the automobile era, are back. The first mass-market EVs are here and more are rolling silently over the horizon. The Obama administration loves cars with cords and wants 1 million on the road by 2015. Chevy Volt: Flagship Model Of The Government-Industrial Complex. President Obama recently reminded General Motors' stockholders, all 311 million of us, that he's calling the shots at America's largest automaker, when he told an audience in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, that freedom to market was the price for the bailout: "If we are going to help you [GM], then you have also got to change your ways." And then he stated the ways: electric cars, and isn't it great that jillions of taxpayer dollars are being thrown at battery manufacturers? Citing a Lack of Usage, Costco Removes E.V. Chargers. Costco, the membership warehouse-club chain, was an early leader in offering electric-vehicle charging to its customers, setting an example followed by other retailers, including Best Buy and Walgreen. By 2006, Costco had installed 90 chargers at 64 stores, mostly in California but also some in Arizona, New York and Georgia. Even after General Motors crushed its EV1 battery cars, the Costco chargers stayed in place. Luxury Volt: GM to build electric Cadillac. GM said Wednesday [8/17/2011] that it will go forward with plans to build a production model of an electric Cadillac luxury coupe. The Converj Concept, which was first presented at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, will be called the Cadillac ELR. Hard Times For the Chevy Volt. The Chevy Volt has only sold about 3,200 units thus far, which is not only pathetic, but not even good enough to outsell the Nissan Leaf's 4500 units. Nevertheless, Government Motors is ramping up for more Volt production. Chevrolet Volt prospects are starting to lose interest. Sure, buyers start losing interest in any new model after the initial hoopla dies down and ad dollars dry up, but there's trouble on the horizon for the Chevrolet Volt, the electric wonder car. Interest in buying the $39,995 plug-in car is starting to taper off, not only among "early adopters" but among lots of other buyers, as well, reports CNW Marketing Research, which tracks such things. How Hollywood Sells the Electric Car. Filmmaker Chris Paine documents the entertainment and automotive industries efforts to make the plug-in car as hot as they once made the Hummer. Chevrolet dealers install solar-powered Volt rechargers. Chevrolet dealers are installing solar-powered charging stations near their showrooms for the Volt extended-range electric car. The Editor says... Just drop off your Chevy Volt and within a couple of weeks, it will be fully recharged. Unless it's January and the solar cells are covered with snow. Chevy Volt Sales Still Embarrassingly Bad. A week after the Environmental Protection Agency came out with new job killing fuel efficiency standards, we have learned that sales of the electric Chevy Volt, are still dismally bad. The big sales number for July? The Editor says... The Chevy Volt, by and large, is only being purchased by those who spend other people's money. GM Volt Supply to Surge in Race With Nissan's Leaf. General Motors Co., trailing Nissan Motor Co. in electric-car sales, plans to boost output of its Chevrolet Volt to 5,000 a month as the automaker seeks to seize the lead and test consumers' hunger for plug-in vehicles. Nissan is winning this year, selling 3,875 of the Leaf in the U.S. to GM's 2,745 Volt sales. Electric Car Maker Folds, Salinas Loses $500,000. A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line. The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company. Finance killed the electric car. In a bid for about $2 million in grant funding from the state Energy Commission, Green Vehicles painted an optimistic picture for producing zero-emission, battery-powered vehicles at its Firestone Business Park plant south of Salinas. There was just one thing missing: money. Electric Cars, Liberal Dreams, and Decepticon Democrats. For many years, liberals have been gushing with enthusiasm over the prospect of a totally-green planet, one where CO2 emissions are a thing of the past (but wouldn't that kill green plants?), wind turbines spin like glittering pinwheels in a parade (killing hundreds of thousands of birds each year), and electric cars line the roads (stopping every 40 miles for a recharge). The left's brilliant lie. The bureaucracy doesn't care about functionality. It wants to wipe out inventions it has long hated, such as the internal-combustion engine. That's why the latest proposals to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements are set at unattainable levels. Currently, manufacturers achieve an average rating of 30.3, but a few manufacturers like Ferrari score just 16.2. By increasing noncompliance penalties, it simply won't be feasible to make a fun car even in low volumes. Only boring hybrids and impractical electric cars will remain. Green Vehicles Inc. Is No More. It's pretty safe to assume that the Green Vehicles debacle won't be a national establishment press story. Obama's subsidymobiles. Having invested heavily in luxury electric automakers Tesla and Fisker, the Obama administration is now putting the screws to their gas-engine competitors, Porsche, BMW & Co. In its regulatory plot to make the gas engine go the way of the incandescent light bulb, President Obama's EPA isn't just mandating 56 miles per gallon by 2025 — effectively creating a standard only hybrid electrics can meet — but mandating harsh fines for companies that make engines the agency doesn't like. Obama's Plan for $10 Gas. American drivers are angry at having to pay $4 a gallon for gas, and understandably so. Their anger is often directed at the oil companies that supply the gas. It should be directed at Barack Obama instead. From the beginning of his appearance on the national stage, Obama has focused on the goal of driving up energy prices with the idea of "weaning" America off fossil fuels. ... By driving up gas prices, Obama hopes to force Americans to purchase hybrid and electric vehicles. Hmmm... how can we make these cars even more impractical? Nissan works on recharging Leaf with solar power. Japanese automaker Nissan is testing a super-green way to recharge its Leaf electric vehicle using solar power, part of a broader drive to improve electricity storage systems. Unplug the hype, and how much car is left? Buy a Chevy Volt at the suggested retail price of $40,280. If you only use it in electric mode (plug it in every night, and keep your total driving down to about 40 miles per day or less), yes, you will get what the EPA considers the equivalent of 95 miles/gallon in the city. ... [But] If you are really concerned about gas mileage, the Chevrolet Aveo has a suggested retail price of $11,965, and the EPA city fuel economy estimate is 27 mpg. How much gasoline can you buy for the difference in price? At $4 per gallon, you can drive 142,998 miles for the price difference. Prius Plug-in charges ahead of the Volt. Enthusiasts who are raving about the range assisted, battery-powered Chevrolet Volt are ignoring the 800-pound elephant in the room: Toyota, which in addition to its vast knowledge base and production volume in hybrid cars, has a better idea. R.I.P. Tesla. The Tesla electric sports car is dead — a victim of its own defective economics. This was not unpredictable. The company created an electric version of the gas-powered Lotus sports car — and tried to sell it for twice the price of the gas-powered version. Just 1,650 of these electric lemons found people rich enough — and dumb enough — to spend $109,000 for a $51,845 Lotus Elise stripped of its perfectly good gasoline engine and converted to run on electricity. Obama Blunders on Batteries Badly. One of Barack Obama's favorite fantasies is that Americans will soon abandon their SUVs and pick-ups in favor of battery operated cars. Implementing energy policies to "boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" is part of his overall plan to force us to go green. The supposed upside is the standard line of worshippers of the green god — reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a cleaner environment. But, like so much of the hope-and-change agenda, the electric car idea isn't off to a very good start, and new research finds it may not be so green after all either. Electric car company filing for bankruptcy. The electric car maker that launched its North American operations in northern Indiana has filed for bankruptcy protection in Norway, a major creditor said Wednesday morning [6/22/2011]. Think Global AS plans to liquidate its assets, according to a statement from its exclusive battery supplier, Ener1 Inc. Electric cars: still in park. The rich are different from you and me: they can afford to be green. Forgetting that it is a Japanese import, Arianna Huffington called her Toyota Prius "an automotive two-fer, a pleasure to drive and patriotic to boot" while actor Will Ferrell said "there's no reason all Americans shouldn't be driving hybrid cars" and Meryl Streep opined that America would not be in the Middle East if everyone drove one. GM offers cheaper Volt. General Motors announced Friday a cheaper, stripped-down version of its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid for the 2012 model year. The base price of a 2011 Volt is $41,000 while the base price of the 2012 Volt will be a little lower: $39,995. To make up for that $1,005 price drop, the base Volt will no longer have navigation — although it will still have the computer touch-screen — and it won't have the upmarket Bose stereo. The Editor says... It's $40,000 for the "stripped" version. Who -- other than the U.S. government -- would buy that car? Some Volt dealers take tax credit for themselves. [Scroll down] The salesman's comment suggests there is truth to reports that some dealers are gaming the system to claim battery car tax credits for themselves, as first reported by a conservative think tank called the National Legal and Policy Center. "Many Volts with practically no miles on them are being sold as 'used' vehicles, enabling the dealerships to benefit from the $7,500 credit supplied by the American taxpayers on each car," NLPC's Mark Modica said in a blog post on the practice. "The process of titling the Volts technically makes the dealerships the first owners of the vehicles, which gives them the ability to claim the subsidies. The cars are then offered to retail customers as 'used' vehicles." Americans say 'no' to electrics despite high gas prices. Nearly six of 10 Americans — 57% — say they won't buy an all-electric car no matter the price of gas, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. U.S. buying 101 Chevy Volts, will install gov't charging stations. The Obama administration announced today it is buying more than 100 plug-in electric vehicles and will install charging stations in government buildings in five cities, including Detroit. The General Services Administration — which oversees most of the federal government's 600,000 vehicle fleet — plans to buy 116 plug-in electric vehicles, including 101 extended-range Chevrolet Volts, 10 battery electric Nissan Leafs and five Think City EV models from Finish EV startup, the agency said today [5/24/2011]. U.S. government buys its first electric vehicles. The federal government handed over the keys to a handful of electric vehicles it purchased Tuesday. The 116 cars — a mixture of Chevrolet Volts, Nissan Leafs and Think Cities — are the first electric vehicles to be purchased by the U.S. government for the federal fleet. They will be distributed to 20 agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Defense, in five cities across the country. GM to boost Volt production. General Motors is preparing to greatly increase production of the Chevrolet Volt as it prepares to begin selling the Detroit-made plug-in hybrid across the United States as well as in China and Europe. Up to now, the Volt has been available only in California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas, Michigan and the Washington D.C. area. Obama issues new directive for federal vehicles. President Barack Obama on Tuesday [5/24/2011] directed federal agencies to buy more hybrid and electric cars under a plan that will require the government to purchase only alternative fuel vehicles by 2015. In tandem with the president's memorandum, the General Services Administration announced a pilot program to buy more than 100 alternative fuel vehicles to be distributed to federal agencies across the country. Oregon's electric car charging network is behind schedule. With its backyard chicken farms, recycling ethos, and nation-leading love affair with the Toyota Prius, Oregon has long been seen as the perfect test bed for electric cars. So it was with some collective relief when Oregon's green credibility was reaffirmed in 2009 by its selection as one of six states to participate in the EV Project. The $230 million, stimulus-funded study is geared to put thousands of electric cars on the road across 18 cities, along with a network of more than 8,000 public charging stations, then watch how they get used. Americans aren't buying into electric cars. You'd think that with gas prices this high that sales of hybrid or electric cars would really get charged up. Think again. So far, they make up only about two percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. Read the facts about the GM Bailout. Despite Obama's billions of tax dollars shovelled to the bailout and his ceaseless campaign on behalf of alternative energy, the endless lectures of the American public by Big Green environmentalists, never-ending blandishments from the likes of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and endorsements from every Politically Correct celebrity on either side of the Mississippi River, GM's Chevrolet Volt has sold exactly 1,703 cars. That's through the end of April, according to Automotive News' data center. ... Obama spent $50 billion bailing out GM so that, among other things, it could get the Volt to market and help lead Americans to that Clean Energy Paradise the Big Greeners and their political allies have been promising us for decades. The Danger Of Eco-Madness. I would never own an electric car, maybe a hybrid, but never full electric. They are just not capable of doing what gas powered cars can do, and sometimes that can be dangerous. Lawmakers push for electric cars while driving gas-guzzlers. Critics of [Senator Carl] Levin's plan said the move smacked of hypocrisy. "Senators vote for an electric vehicle recharging station in the parking garage ... like somehow any of those guys is ever going to drive an electric vehicle except as part of a news conference," said Michael McKenna, a GOP strategist and energy lobbyist. "The truth of the matter is, and everybody who lives and works around these guys knows the truth of the matter, most of them are driven around in great big giant Suburbans." Green cars are ready, car buyers aren't. Despite all the hype around electric and hybrid cars — and a rapid increase in the number of available models — most car shoppers still aren't ready to buy, according to a new survey. Electric Car Boom Could Deliver a Surge in Grid Power. Here's the bad news about electric vehicles: They're going to be [tough] on the grid. The Utilities Telecom Council trade group reports that electric vehicles will require a 16-fold increase in power usage in the next decade, putting pressure on utilities to find out how to handle car charging as quickly as possible. [Excerpt edited to conform to website standards of family-friendliness.] Will consumers revolt against the Volt? [Scroll down] The Volt is an electric pseudo-hybrid compact with a $41,000 manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) — currently selling for as much as $65,000. ... The Volt's abysmal all-electric range is supplemented by a weak gasoline engine that requires premium fuel. Charging requires up to 12 hours, but may be halved for an additional $2,000 (installation costs not included) for a special 220V home "fast charger." Depending on the kind and quality of home wiring, installation costs may be daunting. The charger draws so many amps that considerable rewiring may be required, and proud Volt owners may not be able to use any other high-amp appliances (vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens) while their Volt is charging. If You Build It, They Will Charge. Perhaps the single most unfathomable practice of American auto manufacturers is how and why they decide to build a given vehicle. It's widely understood that they spend millions on sophisticated demographic models and surveys, striving to understand and predict every niche of the market so that they can tell how many units of a given model they can expect to sell versus the manufacturing costs and profit potential of that model. Yet, they still manage to produce vehicles that the guys hanging out in the local hardware store could have told them would be major league turkeys before the first vehicle rolled off the assembly line. A case in point: The Chevy Volt. Bill Ford Sounds EV Retreat. Prior to the Model T, a third of all vehicles in this country were electric... this isn't a new technology. The reason it died away was the ubiquity of charging. Today, we have the same issue. It's ReVolting. In our fast paced, ever-changing lives, we can take occasional comfort in the fact that some things never change. We can rely on death, taxes, McDonald's, the fecklessness and narcissism of Barack Obama, and above all the obsequious New York Times. Yes, the NYT has, once again, lived down to expectations. Thus comes Lawrence Ulrich, on the Times website, with a review of the much-ballyhooed Chevy Volt, a review that could not be more fawning if it was named "Bambi." In fact, "Volt" could easily be replaced with "Obama" in much of the review and it would yield yet another Obama puff piece for which the NYT has become justly infamous. Green-Loving Washington State About to Penalize Electric Car Owners. From coast to coast and all over the world liberals are mindlessly going gaga for green. Anything that smacks of greenism is, with religious fervor, promoted and revered. The electric automobile, for instance, is one of the left's dream modes of transportation. Pursuant to that dreamy green dream, liberals have made sure that all sort of tax breaks are lavished upon those citizens who dutifully jump up to their necks into the unprofitable and technologically untested world of electric cars. The EV Saga Charges On. A serious related issue is charging time. With 110V house current, Volts take from 8-12 hours to fully recharge. With an optional 220V "fast" charger, the recharge time is, according to Chevy, reduced to 4-5 hours. Did anyone mention that the "fast" charger costs $2000, not including installation? Chevy addresses range and charging issues by also installing a gasoline engine, but this is nothing less than a tacit admission of the severe limitations of the technology, the concept, and the vehicle itself. Obama Fibs About Chevy Volt. Speaking in Nevada about the rising cost of gasoline, Obama put in a plug for the administration's favorite flop, GM's Chevy Volt: "I've been in one of these Chevy Volts. This is a nice car. It drives well." As I trudged along the sidewalk, it occurred to me that the President had probably fibbed. He had certainly "been in" the Chevy Volt, but he hadn't ever driven one enough to know how it actually handles. When he tried the Chevy Volt last summer, he drove it "10 feet, and probably not above 2 mph," according to the Associated Press at the time. A $500 Million Dollar Car? Cars and numbers, like dimensions, mpg, and prices, naturally intersect. Then there's a number like $529 million tax dollars that jumps out and therein lies our story. It begins with Fisker Automotive's Karma previewed at the Auto Club Speedway in Ontario, CA. in the March 21 print issue of AutoWeek. With a suggested $95K price tag, the Karma plug-in hybrid is a four-door luxury Chevy Volt for rich people. ... They also maintain the Karma can deliver 67 mpg. Do rich people worry about mileage? ... Ironically the Karma would qualify for a federal tax credit, which would be a tax break for the rich. Wash. considers annual flat fee for electric cars. Drivers of electric cars may have left the gas pump behind, but there's one expense they may not be able to shake: paying to maintain the roads. Chevy Volt hybrid catches fire even though it was unplugged. When his garage burned down last week, Storm Connors defended his beloved hybrid cars charging inside and said they couldn't have caused the fire. But the environmentally-friendly credentials of his Chevy Volt — and the green driver's carbon footprint — took another hit today when its battery caught fire again, even though the car was unplugged. Nissan: Restart problems reported in Leaf electric cars. Nissan Motor Co has received complaints from owners that its Leaf electric car on occasion fails to start, posing a potential setback for the automaker's goal of promoting zero-emission vehicles. Tesla Sues BBC Car Show Over Bad Review. Electric car maker Tesla Motors says it has served the BBC's "Top Gear" show with a lawsuit for libel and malicious falsehood, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday [3/31/2011]. The suit stems from a 2008 episode of the popular British car show in which the company's Tesla Roadster battery-powered sports car appeared to perform poorly in road tests. Obama's Pricey Electric Toys. Obama's new diktat, announced in a Washington speech this morning, fits his centralized planning goal of internal-combustion-engine elimination by 2025 with a draconian, 62 mpg standard. A global warming zealot, Obama had promised a transformation of the U.S. auto industry — even as he has taken credit for GM's return to profitability thanks to increased light-truck sales. Obama's auto fancy, however, will be enormously expensive to taxpayers: the $41,000 Chevy Volt electric vehicle cost more than double the gas-powered, $17,000 Chevy Cruze built on the same platform. The public already forks over $7,500 dollars to the (generally wealthy) buyers of each Volt. Of, course, many Washington officials — including the president — are transported in giant, gas-guzzling SUVs. Obama's 10 mpg Caddy — codenamed "The Beast" by the Secret Service — is regularly escorted by a fleet of giant GM SUVs. Chevy Volt: The Car From Atlas Shrugged Motors. Sitting in a Volt that would not start at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, a GM engineer swore to me that the internal combustion engine in the machine only served as a generator, kicking in when the overnight-charged lithium-ion batteries began to run down. GM has continually revised downward its estimates of how far the machine would go before the gas engine fired, and now says 25 to 50 miles. It turns out that the premium-fuel fired engine does drive the wheels — when the battery is very low or when the vehicle is at most freeway speeds. So the Volt really isn't a pure electric car after all. I'm sure that the people who designed the car knew how it ran, and so did their managers. Volt battery developer says temperature a problem for all batteries. It's a tough week to be the guy who led development of the Chevy Volt's battery. Consumer Reports on Monday said its tests showed the battery's range at a paltry 23 to 28 miles in cold weather, far below the 40 miles originally promised. Consumer Reports: GM's Volt 'doesn't really make a lot of sense'. Consumer Reports offered a harsh initial review of the Chevrolet Volt, questioning whether General Motors Co.'s flagship vehicle makes economic "sense." The extended-range plug-in electric vehicle is on the cover of the April issue — the influential magazine's annual survey of vehicles — but the GM vehicle comes in for criticism. Consumer Reports says GM Volt falls short on range. General Motors Co's mostly electric Chevy Volt turned in a lackluster performance for efficiency in its first series of road tests by product raters at Consumer Reports. Electric-charging-station firms plug into public money. Consumers won't buy electric vehicles without somewhere to charge them. But no one will build charging stations without electric vehicles to use them. To solve this quandary, local governments, including Illinois, and the federal government have pumped millions of dollars of public subsidies into building charging stations. Jumpstarting the electric car market. Despite having already sunk millions of dollars into the "environmentally friendly" car market, Washington is pedaling the gas for more. In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Obama vowed to "break our dependence on oil" and said that the U.S. would "become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015." Though this may just be an arbitrary ploy for environmental romanticism, the president believes that market sovereignty is only achieved through government assistance. Federal Government Charges Up Electric Car Market. The federal government is hitting the gas on incentive programs meant to prop up the electric car market, raising questions about whether it's appropriate for Washington to continue subsidizing an industry it's already invested in heavily. As part of that interplay, nine cities across the country are set to receive thousands of free charging stations this year as part of a special program. Electric cars get a boost in Obama budget plan. In its effort to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, the Obama administration's proposed budget supports a plan to give $7,500 directly to electric car buyers rather than make them wait for a tax credit. Is the Chevy Volt Overpriced? For months now, I've been eagerly anticipating General Motors' pricing announcement for the forthcoming Chevy Volt extended-range electric car. I can't say I was surprised when it finally came down two days ago: $41,000, much of that in the battery. But I wanted to be much, much more surprised. The sticker was roughly in line with what people who've been paying attention to this issue expected. Cold truths about electric cars' cold-weather shortcomings. It is a basic fact of physical science that batteries run down more quickly in cold weather than they do in warm weather, and the batteries employed by vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf or the Chevy Volt are no exception. The exact loss of power these cars would suffer is a matter of debate, partly because no one has much real-world experience to draw on. But there would be some loss. Running the heater to stay warm, or the car radio to stay informed, would drain the battery further. Battery-powered cars and other projects government should avoid. Charles Lane's column on battery-powered cars (they don't work so well in the cold) is a timely reminder, not only for Beltway drivers who suffered through a hellish commute Wednesday night, but for the entire country. The government is not very good at picking feasible energy projects. "Green Crime" costing taxpayers millions uncovered in probe. The same government agency that mailed millions in fraudulent tax refunds to prison inmates has been cheated out of $33 million by thousands of people who claimed tax credits for alternative and plug-in electric vehicles, according to a public-interest group that investigates government corruption and fraud. In automatically granting the bogus tax credits the Internal Revenue Service was simply following an aggressive Obama Administration plan to reward consumers that purchase the costly "advanced-technology" vehicles. The president is on a mission to get 1 million of the environmentally friendly cars on the road by 2015, according to Judicial Watch officials. Obama's electric car goal hits roadblock. President Barack Obama's goal of putting 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015 could run into a huge roadblock — the American consumer. Electric Cars Could Be Charged a Fee. Electric cars in Oregon may be hit with a mileage charge, under a bill in the State Legislature. The .06 cents a mile fee would take the place of the gas tax that electric car owners don't pay and be designated for road maintenance. The Editor says... First of all, is it six cents a mile, or .06 cents a mile? To be worth the effort, it must be the former. Second, why can't they just call it what it is? It is a tax on electric cars. No Rush to Buy Electric Cars: Survey. Gasoline prices are on the rise again but even as they surpass $3 a gallon for the second time in three years, most Americans aren't ready to give up their fossil-fuel cars yet. A new survey by Rasmussen Reports found that less than one-third of adults — 27 percent — say they think it's likely they'll be purchasing an electric vehicle within the next 10 years. Nissan Leaf deliveries delayed for months. Nissan is overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to delivering its new Leaf electric car to customers who want one, a top official for the automaker says. Customers for the innovative electric car are being told it's going to take four to seven months from the time they placed their order to get one, Edmunds Green Car Advisor reports. Rare Earths Leave Toxic Trail to Toyota Prius, Vestas Turbines. Rare earth metals are key to global efforts to switch to cleaner energy — from batteries in hybrid cars to magnets in wind turbines. Mining and processing the metals causes environmental damage that China, the biggest producer, is no longer willing to bear. What's it cost to prep a Nissan dealership for the Leaf? The Nissan Leaf appears, at first glance, to be a heck of a lot easier to service than a conventional car. Without a gas tank, fuel pump, crankshaft, valvetrain or a complicated multi-speed transmission, maintaining a Leaf should relatively easy, right? However, with its high-tech gadgetry, the Leaf certainly requires service by skilled technicians with working knowledge of electric autos and, for Nissan dealers interested in selling the electric hatch, some expensive diagnostic and other specialized equipment must be obtained as well. NJ retiree takes delivery of first Chevy Volt. A retired airline pilot living in New Jersey is the owner of the first Chevrolet Volt hybrid electric vehicle sold to the public. Electric Cars Threaten Energy Independence. Electric cars need batteries, and those batteries need lithium. "All these vehicles use lithium," a Ford spokesman told The New Yorker. "We don't think about electric vehicles using anything else." That's because lithium is lighter than the nickel now used in batteries. It also holds a larger charge for a longer period of time. "[W]ith the emergence of electric cars, lithium could challenge petroleum as the dominant fuel of the future," the New Yorker article noted. "And nearly half the world's known resources are buried beneath vast salt flats in southwestern Bolivia, the largest of which is called the Salar de Uyuni. Bolivians have begun to speak of their country becoming 'the Saudi Arabia of lithium.'" Electric cars flooding the market in 2012. If you want to buy an electric car today, good luck, it's slim pickins. But fast forward three years and you could be facing more plug-in choices than you'll know what to do with. That could be a problem for carmakers because most Americans still have little or no interest in buying electric cars. The Editor says... If you are looking for a long-term investment, you should buy two or three of each manufacturers' first electric cars, put them in mothballs, and wait about 50 years. They will be worth a small fortune. Imagine if you had a perfectly-preserved Edsel in a warehouse somewhere. Or an Isetta. Or a '51 Studebaker. The same idea would work for the owner of a new first-generation Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf. Obama Bolsters U.S. Hybrid Automobile Sales in Waning Consumer Market. President Barack Obama's administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes. Chevy saves the planet for $4 per car? General Motors has apparently had an epiphany. GM now "realizes" that it "shares the planet with everyone" and wants "to do more to help keep it clean." So GM has pledged to buy carbon offsets representing one year's worth of greenhouse gas emissions from the 1.9 million Chevys projected to be sold during 2011. Under the Chevy Carbon Reduction program, GM will spend up to $40 million over five years offsetting about 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. There is much less here than meets the eye. Batteries v. gas — so far, it's no contest. A tank of gasoline contains more than 60 times as much usable energy as the equivalent weight of the best available electric vehicle battery. [Electric motors] can be five times as efficient as [internal combustion engines], but that reduces the weight of batteries required to achieve the same range to no less than 12 times the weight of a full gasoline tank, other things being equal. EPA Fraud: Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Actually Get Only 23, 25 MPG. You may have heard the mileage rating for the Nissan Leaf is 99 MPG (miles per gallon equivalent). ... As Auto Blog says of the rating: "It looks good." Of course it looks good. But there's a whole lot more to the story. Note that the MPG rating is MPG equivalent. The MSM has been dropping the "equivalent," making it seem to consumers that the vehicle is far more efficient than it truly is. Which is the intent, of course. GM Rolls Out Long-Anticipated Chevrolet Volt Plug-In Hybrid. Nearly three years after General Motors (GM) unveiled the Chevrolet Volt as a concept vehicle, the resurgent automaker Tuesday took the wraps off the final production model that will begin shipping to dealers next month. Your Coal-fired Electric Car. Millions of bubble brains in the media think the GM Volt is supposed to be the answer to our energy needs. It is of course a fraud, as GM actually admitted after it hyped the new Volt. It's not a "hybrid electric," as GM lied to the hearty applause of Obama and the New York Times. Rather it's a gas-powered car for 340 miles per tank, and you can run it for 40 miles on batteries that will have to be replaced when they stop taking a charge, as batteries do. Electric Cars May Accelerate Global Warming. Electric cars are not a silver bullet solution for global warming, but could they actually be part of the problem? In some developing countries, the answer is likely "yes," according to the results of a modeling exercise conducted by Oxford University's Reed Doucette and Malcolm McCullocha. Subsidies for plug-in cars: A scam for big business. When you see bipartisan agreement on energy and transportation policy, it means one thing: truckloads of subsidies for well-connected big businesses touting some unproven high-tech "green" solution. Most green subsidies are mostly harmless (if also useless) — such as solar and wind subsidies. But in recent weeks, lawmakers are lining up behind one green idea that could waste unprecedented amounts of resources — venture capital, taxpayer money, intellectual innovation — by approving vast new subsidies to make plug-in electric cars the dominant mode of transportation. MSNBC's Brewer Promotes Electric Car Charging Stations as Parent Company GE Sells Them. Displaying a clear conflict of interest during Friday's 12PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer did a story promoting electric car charging stations but did not disclose to viewers that the channel's parent company, General Electric, was selling the very same product. GE commercials for the charging stations have frequently aired on MSNBC in recent weeks. Electric cars run on coal, partly. Environmental groups and power companies are touting the benefits of emissions-free electric vehicles as a way to cut pollution in Texas. But do electric vehicles, especially in Texas where much electricity is generated with coal, simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack? GE to buy 25,000 electric cars, including GM Volts. General Electric Co plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles from makers including General Motors Co over the next five years, in a move it said could spark demand for the charging equipment it sells. The largest U.S. conglomerate aims to swap out half its fleet of 30,000 cars — used by sales people and technicians, for instance — with electric vehicles and to start shifting customers who lease fleets of vehicles over as well. Eco-freaks. I dislike the eco-freaks who demand that everyone buy a hideously expensive electric car when the ones we do buy are marvels of technology while there's an estimated thirteen trillion untapped barrels of oil sufficient to keep them running on high octane for a very long time to come. Consumers will save an estimated five billion dollars if the government allows the ethanol mandate to end this year. The EPA's Odd View of 'Consumer Choice'. Drive the Chevy Volt more than 30 or so miles and it will be powered by a generator — not a motor — inefficiently powering a 3,500-pound car. No one knows the true fuel economy, but it's not even likely to beat the Prius in real-world driving. That leaves us a long way from 80 mpg. (The above information about the Volt was what I was told by a GM engineer at the Detroit auto show last January, while sitting in the very car. GM revealed on Oct. 10 that the internal combustion engine indeed will drive the wheels at high speed. This is no breakthrough automobile; on the freeway it is a conventional hybrid.) Juicy tax breaks for electric cars. The Nissan Leaf will carry a price tag of $32,500, but some California residents could drive one for just about $17,000 — roughly the cost of a typical gas-powered compact sedan. That low, low price is thanks to incentives from the federal government, which offers a $7,500 tax credit to buyers of plug-in cars; the state of California, which offers a $5,000 rebate; and local governments in California's San Joaquin Valley, which offer another $3,000 in rebates. The Editor says... Where do you suppose those rebate dollars come from? Taken for a Ride: Misrepresentations of the Fascist-Green's Clean Machine. Indeed, regarding the political motivation of facts and figures, GM announced in October 2009 that the Chevy Volt would get an astounding (and disingenuous) 230 mpg. Alas, this hyperbolic mpg rating was borne of politics, based upon a driver consistently driving only 47 miles per day. This enables the driver to get an imaginary 230 mpg, because he gets his first 40 miles for "free", and then only uses the internal combustion engine (ICE) for the other 7 miles. So while the 230 mpg figure is perhaps mathematically correct, it represents a huge waste of resources to lug around a 1400 cc ICE for such minimal use. Low Volts, Falling Leafs. As the launch dates for the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf approach, we need to ask how big a role the electric vehicle will have in America's future. ... GM has already admitted that it may not turn a profit on EVs for years to come. This is understandable, considering the fact that the typical EV battery costs over $15,000. Chevy Volt Misses the Mark. Now that the Chevy Volt, General Motors' electric car, is about to arrive in selected dealers' showrooms around the country, it has been getting a lot of press. Some are puff pieces, one of which appeared in USA Today, while others are much more critical. GE to buy 'tens of thousands' of electric cars. General Electric will order "tens of thousands" of electric cars in about a week, the conglomerate's chief executive said Friday [10/29/2010]. In a speech in London, CEO Jeffrey Immelt said the purchase would be the largest of its kind in history. But he did not specify exactly how many vehicles GE would buy, nor what brand of electric cars would be included in the order. How GM "Lied" About The Electric Car. The Chevy Volt has been hailed as General Motors' electric savior. Now, as GM officially rolls out the Volt this week for public consumption, we're told the much-touted fuel economy was misstated and GM "lied" about the car being all-electric. Chevy Volt Shock! Strike Three for GM PR? The Volt was supposed to be "all-electrically powered" — its gas engine would just be a "range extender" that produced juice for the electric motor when the battery ran down. It wouldn't drive the car's wheels directly, as in a mere "hybrid" Prius or Fusion. Or so we were led to believe. A 132-Year Payback On The All-Electric Car. [Scroll down] Entrepreneurs who believe in the all-electric car are free to invest their own money and lobby investor capitalists for more. But right now, the all-electric car appears to be a black hole for wasting more taxpayer money. The left's war on the gasoline-powered car. After more than a century of refinement, the gasoline-powered automobile represents an unbeatable choice. It provides economical freedom of travel to more people than has been possible at any other time in the world's history. This galls the social planners who prefer to restrict movement and foster dependency. That's why electric cars are a favorite. Since they were first developed in the 1880s, they have been hobbled by range and carrying capacity limitations. Chevy Volt, Electric Revolution? Or Outta Gas? The first thing I noticed driving the Chevrolet Volt is that it's a real car. GM did not kick out the kind of street-legal version of a golf cart like we have seen with previous attempts at making an electric car. The Volt is sturdy and it has horsepower. I had it up to 80 MPH on the test track and given how quiet gasoline powered cars are today, I was hard pressed to notice a difference between the Volt and my last airport rental. Democrats party while nation suffers. The team at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has more interest in redecorating the Oval Office than in feeling your pain. In fact, it is downright excited to take advantage of the economic downturn to push the stuff that otherwise could never be done. ... Chief among such schemes is the administration's multibillion-dollar effort to kill the internal-combustion engine. Prius drivers to lose a perk in California: HOV lane privileges. Toyota Prius drivers, prepare to move over. Your days of riding solo in carpool lanes are numbered. Fix for Civic hybrids' dying batteries may hurt gas mileage. When Honda Motor Co. rolled out its latest-generation Civic hybrid, it was sold as the automaker's green car of the future. But five years into production, Honda has discovered that its high-tech batteries can die years early, a potentially expensive flaw that the automaker has been addressing with a software update that many owners claim has made the car less environmentally friendly. It's Official: Chevrolet Volt Will Cost $41,000. The big question about the Chevrolet Volt was answered today [7/27/2010] when General Motors said the car will cost $41,000. Add in the federal electric-vehicle tax credit and you're looking at $33,500. Yes, that's a lot. But the General says you're getting a lot for your money. GM begins taking orders today [7/27/2010] and says the first Volts roll into driveways by year's end. The GM Volt: Fascism Strikes the Auto Industry. Corporatism produces one of the worst cars ever built, and citizens pay for it with their taxes and their liberty. NYT op-ed: The Chevrolet Volt is a government funded electric lemon. Today, President Obama will likely tout the Chevrolet Volt, as he takes a victory lap around Detroit celebrating the 'saved' jobs thanks to the government bailouts afforded to the auto industry. Edward Niedermeyer, the editor of 'The Truth About Cars' roundly trashes the Chevrolet Volt in a New York Times op-ed, arguing that it is a taxpayer funded mistake. G.M.'s Electric Lemon. 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. Green machine: Plug-free electric cars' hidden cost. It's bad enough forgetting to recharge your mobile phone overnight — the inconvenience is likely to be far worse if you fail to plug in your electric car. Now an array of technologies are being developed to ensure that absent-minded drivers don't run out of power on the road, but the come with a downside: they risk negating a key environmental benefit of going electric. Electric Cars are Not Green. Electric cars are nifty, quiet and trendy, and don't add hot gases to city air, but a forced conversion will neither save energy nor reduce the production of carbon dioxide. Electric motors, compressed air motors and hydrogen "fuel" are promoted as clean and green, but none of them are sources of energy. All of them need conventional electric power to provide their stored energy. Gov't Motors' Electric Edsel. The administration's electric car represents both the genius of American technology and the stupidity of its government. Imagine Rube Goldberg with $50 billion. Buy now and get a free 40-mile-long extension cord. Low Volt-age. Let us compare the Volkswagen and the "Voltswagen." The original Volkswagen was intended as the "people's car" (that's what Volkswagen means). ... And then there's the electric-gas hybrid Chevy Volt, aka the "Voltswagen." At $41,000, about as much as the average American makes in a year, this is no people's car. Funding electrics is a battery-dead idea. The quest for an electric car is not new. Electric cars were developed in the early days of the automobile, but they wound up on the sidelines due to the obvious advantages of the internal combustion engine and petroleum fuels in terms of cost, performance and quick refueling. Free Market Obama. [Scroll down] How about the Smith Electric Vehicles plant in Kansas City, which Obama visited just before coming to Las Vegas? So far, Smith Electric has received $32 million in funding to build electric vehicles. It's so successful that they've hired fifty workers. (That's $640,000 per job created.) The company builds the Smith Newton, a sporty little urban vehicle with a top speed of 50 mph. Smith Electric proposes to build a lot of Newtons, many of them to be purchased by the federal government. It hasn't built too many yet, but someday it will build five hundred, or even more. And someday, millions of green jobs will sprout up like green shoots. Green Prince of Darkness. Soon Electric Vehicles, aka EVs, will replace the nasty internal combustion engine and humanity will be in harmony with the Universe. The transition technology in this race is the hybrid auto and the front runner is the Toyota Prius. This undeniable marvel has a 120 pound Nichol-Metal Hydride battery that costs $3,500 to replace or approximately $20 per pound. ... Due to chemical erosion through use, these batteries have an eight year or 100,000 mile warranty period. You can save $450 per year on gasoline if you spend $450 per year on a battery. You can walk forever up the down escalator and still get nowhere. More roadside chargers needed for electric cars. The auto industry calls it range anxiety: Drivers want electric cars but worry they won't have enough juice to make long trips. First Chevy Volt cars will not be E85 ready. The first batch of General Motors Chevy Volt 2011 plug-in hybrid cars will not be compatible to run E85, a blend of gas and ethanol. Tom Stephens, GM vice chair for global product development, called for more government support of ethanol and a need for more E85 stations during his Tuesday [2/16/2010] speech at the Renewable Fuels Association conference in Florida. Detroit's government-run auto show. Less than 3 percent of auto sales are gas-electric hybrids, yet the "green future" dominated Cobo Convention Center. Once banished to Cobo's basement as curiosities, the small, kit-car makers of oddball alternative-fuel three-wheelers, electric golf carts and battery-powered meter maid vehicles were given prominent space on the main floor. Low-speed electric vehicles are low-safety, watchdog group warns. They look like souped-up golf carts and are often seen as an environmentally friendly way to get around the neighborhood or go grocery shopping. But they could also be death traps, according to a prominent safety watchdog group. Lights out for electric carmaker. Management at long-struggling Think Nordic, which once made the popular Think City electric cars, conceded Thursday [2/23/2006] that it was effectively bankrupt. Hybrid car sales stall as cost of going green is turn-off. Petrol-electric cars have been hailed as saviours of the environment and every "green" celebrity is driving one, but hybrids are failing to impress consumers and sales are falling. Hybrid Cars' Fantasy Mileage Ratings Drive Into the Sunset. Hybrid car economics will face a new road test this month with the arrival of fresh models sporting revised mileage ratings from the Environmental Protection Agency. This year, new test standards have forced manufacturers to lower advertised efficiency claims on most models compared to previous years, and car lots are bracing for a tougher environment for hybrid sales. The Hybrid Hoax: They're not as fuel-efficient as you think. Most cars and trucks don't achieve the gas mileage they advertise, according to Consumer Reports. But hybrids do a far worse job than conventional vehicles in meeting their EPA fuel economy ratings, especially in city driving. Hybrids, which typically claim to get 32 to 60 miles per gallon, ended up delivering an average of 19 miles per gallon less than their EPA ratings under real-world driving conditions (which reflect more stop-and-go traffic and Americans' penchant for heavy accelerating) according to a Consumer Reports investigation in October 2005. Why Hybrid Cars Aren't Selling Well: The sale of hybrid automobiles constitutes an anemic 1.8% of all vehicle sales, down from a peak of 2.1% in October 2006. I would suggest that Americans aren't all that "green" despite the endless print and broadcast media harangues that our wonderful lifestyles are to blame for everything from hurricanes to frizzy hair. Those who have tried to be green have found that there are considerable additional costs involved and this has proven particularly true of hybrid cars…. For now, gas will be champ. Every time I hear of a promising new electric vehicle (EV) or a "breakthrough" battery, my eyes roll back in my head. The cars are either hugely expensive or tiny, slow and impractical. Their claimed ranges are either double-digit small at neighborhood speeds or ridiculously optimistic at highway speeds. The batteries are typically single-cell wonders in a lab, many years and dollars away from vehicle size. Hybrid vehicles' overall energy costs exceed those of comparable non-hybrids. Even sales of the Toyota Prius — the darling of the greens — have dropped significantly. The only segment besides taxis where hybrids are still holding steady — taxpayers will be happy to note — is the car fleets maintained by the government. What's particularly interesting is that individual consumers are defying all expectations and turning their backs on hybrids at a time when gas prices are soaring. Hybrid hysteria. Remember methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), the green gasoline additive that was supposed to save the planet but was an environmental, public-health and economic disaster? Remember ethanol, the green gasoline additive that replaced MTBE and was supposed to save the planet but has been an environmental, public-health and economic disaster? Well, now Gang Green is pushing the hybrid vehicle. Hybrid Hypocrisy. The megawatt popularity of hybrids is dimming and Americans are rediscovering their favorite automotive guilty pleasure, gas-guzzling SUVs. And here's something even more shocking: a surprising number of Americans have it both ways. They own a hybrid and an SUV. According to an analysis for NEWSWEEK by researcher GfK Automotive, 24.2 percent of hybrid owners also have an SUV in their garage. The Editor says... That's not necessarily hypocrisy. One compensates for the other. And if you can afford both, who has the authority to tell you what kind of car to drive? Have You Hugged a Hummer Today? In the real world — outside of the Environmental Protection Agency's tax-payer funded testing sites — hybrids don't deliver anywhere close to the gas mileage that the agency attributes to them. The Hybrid Hoax: They're not as fuel-efficient as you think. When Treasury Secretary John Snow announced guidelines for a new tax cut for the rich here last week, liberals did not denounce him. That's because the proposed tax breaks were for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, the favorite ride of environmentalists this side of bicycles. But the dirty secret about hybrids is that, even as the government continues to fuel their growth with tax subsidies, they don't deliver the gas savings they promise. Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage. The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate 'green car' is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer. Smug eco-preachers a turnoff. Out of a record one million new cars sold in Australia during the 2006-07 financial year, just 2081 — or 0.5 percent — were eco-friendly hybrids. More than half of these were bought by governments. During the entire year, just 791 hybrids went to private buyers. Will plug-in hybrids crash the grid? Duke Energy says no. Duke Energy and smart grid company GridPoint said on Thursday [3/27/2008] that they have found a way for people to charge plug-in hybrid cars in a way that won't bring the power grid to its knees. The companies said that they have completed a test using GridPoint's SmartGrid Platform device to charge up cars after 10 p.m. … In the worst-case scenario, the United States would need to build 160 new power plants to accommodate plug-in hybrids. The Editor says... Notice that the people at the power company think you're smart enough to buy a hybrid car, but not smart enough to charge the batteries at the right time. A better solution would be to make the price of electricity drop at midnight. "Smart" metering would have to be used, of course, but savvy consumers would then find a way to do their laundry and wash the dishes when rates are low. It certainly sounds like the hybrid cars are real power hogs when they're charging, if the power grid can't support very many of them. But consider the implications: If you save $100 a month on gas, but you spend an extra $200 a month on electricity, you obviously haven't gained anything. Blind people: Hybrid cars pose hazard. Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't drive: the blind. Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it's safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot. Lawmaker: Electric Cars Are Too Quiet. Electric and hybrid vehicles may be good for the environment, but a California lawmaker says they're bad news for the blind. State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, is pushing a bill aimed at ensuring that the vehicles make enough noise to be heard by the blind and visually impaired when they're about to cross a street. Congress to Introduce Bill to Protect Blind People From Hybrid Cars. A bill intended to protect blind people and other pedestrians from the dangers posed by quiet cars will be introduced Wednesday [4/9/2008] in Congress. The measure would require the Transportation Department to establish safety standards for hybrids and other vehicles that make little discernible noise, including an audible means for alerting people that cars are nearby. Not as green as they claim to be. Just how green should you feel driving the new Chevy Tahoe hybrid sport utility vehicle? The eight-passenger vehicle is plastered with "hybrid" labels. An automobile magazine panel that included the executive director of The Sierra Club named it the "Green Car of the Year." But the Tahoe gets only about 20 miles per gallon … [And it weighs three tons]. Eco-friendly claims for 'hybrid' cars dismissed as gimmickry. Cars promoted as eco-friendly were criticised yesterday [5/18/2008] for pumping out up to 56 percent more carbon dioxide than the manufacturers claim. Three models, including the Honda Civic hybrid, performed so badly in tests that their environmental claims were dismissed as a gimmick. A further five vehicles, including Volkswagen's Polo BlueMotion, hailed as Britain's greenest car when it was claimed that it emitted less than 100 grams of CO2 per km (g/km), failed to match the claims made by their makers. Hybrid batteries spark waste fears. Australia has no ability to environmentally dispose of the batteries from the Toyota Camry hybrids whose production has been championed by Kevin Rudd. Labor in Victoria, where the cars will be built, has conceded a "current hole" in the nation's recycling policies means there is no capacity to environmentally dispose of the nickel-metal hydride car batteries from the 10,000 hybrid cars to be produced by Toyota every year from the start of 2010. Obama's Car Puzzle. You have in GM's Volt a perfect car of the Age of Obama — or at least the Honeymoon of Obama, before the reality principle kicks in. Even as GM teeters toward bankruptcy and wheedles for billions in public aid, its forthcoming plug-in hybrid continues to absorb a big chunk of the company's product development budget. This is a car that, by GM's own admission, won't make money. It's a car that can't possibly provide a buyer with value commensurate with the resources and labor needed to build it. It's a car that will be unsalable without multiple handouts from government. Sales of green cars go into reverse. Sales of electric cars have fallen by more than half this year, according to figures released two days after the Government's climate change advisory body predicted a huge increase. Only 156 electric cars were sold from January to October, compared with 374 for the same period last year. Electric shock: green Prius fails to pay its way. The great problem with the Prius — and it is the same problem that dogs the development of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and other magical-sounding car technologies — is that the companies need to be building and selling an awful lot of them before the cost comes down to the point where anyone and everyone can imagine paying the higher price of going "green". Lithium-rich Bolivia now a global player. In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: Almost half of the world's lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found in Bolivia — a country that may not be willing to surrender it easily. Obama's Clean Car Chimera. Will our freeways soon be clogged with high-tech cars propelled mostly by electricity? The floundering automaker, General Motors, has promised to bring its Chevy Volt PHEV to market by 2010. Not to be left out, Ford and Chrysler have also announced plans to sell PHEVs in the next couple of years. ... However, without a plentiful supply of reliable long-range batteries, all such promises of a glorious electrically driven future are just so much hot air. Nothing to Fear but O Himself. [Scroll down] In the same paper, Obama's team dissed the Chevy Volt, the electric car dubbed 'the Barack Obama of automobiles' by The Atlantic. How right they were. Like Barack Obama, the Volt is a fuzzy little puff of idealism that makes no sense where rubber meets road. No one is going to pay SUV prices — $40,000! — for a tiny clown car and the Volt needs to be charged for six hours to provide a 40-mile ride. Electric cars don't make carbon emissions disappear, either. They merely outsource them to the nearest plant (which is more likely to run on coal than anything else.) Would You Buy an Electric Car? Unlike political rhetoric read from a teleprompter, cars are real. You can touch them and drive them and determine whether or not they're good, bad or indifferent. And the reality is that electric cars don't match the performance of conventional vehicles you're driving now. GM Says Chevrolet Volt Won't 'Pay the Rent'. General Motors is pouring money into the Chevrolet Volt but concedes it won't make money on the range-extended electric vehicle anytime soon. Newly installed CEO Fritz Henderson argues that pioneering projects like the Volt typically lose money until the technology catches on. It is simply the cost of doing business. Electric cars labelled 'overhype' at Shanghai Auto Show. [Scroll down] However, other executives at the Shanghai Auto show suggested that electric car technology was still in its infancy. "From what we have seen so far the technology is not that advanced in terms of battery life, range, and recharging," said Nick Reilly, the head of General Motors in the Asia-Pacific region. "If you look at the detail, they tend to not to perform as well on these measures. But they have a good price and we know the Chinese government is investing a lot of money." E-car industry agrees on one plug to rule them all. Electric car makers and power companies are to unveil this week a standard Europe-wide power plug to recharge the batteries of electric vehicles, the German newspaper Die Welt reported Sunday. ... The connectors were designed for a 400-volt power supply with up to 63 amperes of current. The Editor says... The news item immediately above is far more interesting than you might think. If you have to supply 400 volts at 50 amps to recharge your car, that's 20,000 watts of power! (The standardized connector mentioned above would be capable of handling 25,200 watts.) That's probably more power than the rest of your household lights and appliances combined. And the real irony here is that the people who want you to drive an electric car to "save the planet" are the same people who don't want you to buy a big television set, because wide-screen TV's use too much power. US lawmakers to de-silence electric cars. A bill that will require electric and hybrid cars to make enough noise so that blind folks can hear them coming has been introduced in the US Senate. The bill, S. 841 -- more pedestrianly known as the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 -- doesn't specifically mention adding noise to otherwise silent vehicles. It merely instructs the US Secretary of Transportation to conduct a study to devise and require a "non-visual alert regarding the location, motion, speed, and direction of travel of a motor vehicle." Fuel for Thought: Imagine that you are in the market for an electric motor to replace the gas-guzzling internal combustion engine that powers your car. Before you make the switch, you're certain to ask: How much electricity will have to be purchased from the power company to take an otherwise identical car as far down the road as it used to go on a gallon of gasoline? ... An optimistic estimate ... would be 40 KWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity per gallon of gas. The Editor says... One gallon of gasoline has a potential energy of 116,090 BTU*, which, according to my calculations, would be the equivalent of just over 34 kWh. And yet, neither a gasoline engine nor an electric motor is 100% efficient, so the 34 kWh figure doesn't tell the whole story. Study: Electric cars not as green as you think. [Scroll down] The carbon dioxide emission reductions from these 1 million electrical vehicles in Germany's transportation sector would be only 1 percent, according to the study, and overall national carbon dioxide emissions would only be cut by 0.1 percent. "That is not a very big deal," [Viviane] Raddatz said, adding that "it is not going to help us out of the transportation emission mess." How green is my Prius? The short answer is: nowhere near as green as Leonardo diCaprio and the eco-glitterati were led to believe when they bought it. Powered by two engines — a standard 76 hp, 1.5-litre petrol engine and a battery engine (an immediate extra cost) the Toyota Synergy System sounds like the answer to an eco-dream. Well it was under the pre-2008 EPA regime of standard tests (including running the car at 8 mph) that allowed makers to make unrealistic claims for its mileage. When the EPA introduced a more realistic standard of testing in 2008 the average mileage dropped to 45 mpg, around the same as a normal car. But building a hybrid like the Prius causes far more environmental damage than producing a normal car. How an electric car could kill you. When cars run on electric power, they not only save fuel and cut emissions but also operate more quietly. ... Some drivers say that when their cars are in electric mode people are more likely to step out in front of them. The solution, many now believe, is to fit electric and hybrid cars with external sound systems. Electric Cars Will Not Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Says Federal Study. The stimulus law enacted in February promoted the purchase of plug-in electric cars by the federal government and the broader market, but a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month says that the use of plug-in electric vehicles will not by itself decrease greenhouse gas emissions. To do that, the report argues, the United States would have to switch from coal-burning plants to lower-emission sources to generate electricity such as nuclear power. Future of electric cars needs juice. In Yokohama, Japan, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn used the opening of the automaker's new corporate headquarters to unveil its first all-electric car called the Leaf. Details were scant for the Leaf, a four-door subcompact, which will go on sale in the U.S. and Japan next year. But Nissan did say that the car will go 100 miles on a charge and that the batteries alone will cost about $10,000. Customers are intended to buy the car and lease the batteries. Will Electric Cars Wreck the Grid? Plug-in electric cars could destabilize the distribution of power, a utility executive cautioned at a conference here this week. Ed Kjaer, director of Southern California Edison's electric transportation advancement program, said plug-in manufacturers, designers and component makers are poised to capitalize on a "perfect storm" that could push electric cars into the mainstream. 'Green' Car? Try Blackout City. Sorry, the new Chevrolet Volt does not promise a "green" revolution — indeed, the car could trigger a whole new wave of blackouts. Chevrolet notes that the key to high-mileage performance to the tune of 230 miles per gallon "is for a Volt driver to plug into the electric grid at least once each day" to get "40 miles of electric-only, petroleum-free driving." But that won't be "petroleum-free" in much of the country — because so many utilities use heavy fuel oil to generate that electricity. Will the Chevy Volt's 'Shaky' 230 MPG Save General Motors? After years of building big trucks and SUVs, the Big Three Detroit automakers for the last year have been pegging their hopes on fuel-efficient hybrid cars. The most-dramatic and hyped of these is the Chevrolet Volt, which General Motors now says could get up to 230 mile (sic) per gallon, the first mass-produced American vehicle to ever achieve triple-digit fuel economy. The Editor says... Why stop there? Why not claim that it gets 1000 mpg? You could make that claim, if you only drove the car on its batteries and recharged them every day. Volt Sticker Shock. We live in incoherent times, but maybe someone can explain it to me: How does a $40,000 "economy" car make economic sense? The $40k is the price GM will reportedly charge for its all-electric Volt sedan — due out in late 2010 as a 2011 model. Unlike current hybrids, which mostly get going on their internal combustion engines — with their battery packs and electric motors providing a supplemental boost — the Volt will be propelled entirely by electric motors and batteries. Electric Car Gas Mileage Estimates Misleading. These miles per gallon measures for electric cars are getting ridiculous. Last week, General Motors announced with great fanfare that its new Chevy Volt will get 230 miles a gallon. Nissan quickly announced that its new car, the Leaf, will get 367 mpg. ... It makes it sound as if the total emissions generated by the car would be very small. However, how "green" the car is greatly depends on how the electricity was generated in the first place. Audi Chief Calls Chevy Volt "A Car For Idiots". In a frank conversation with MSN writer Lawrence Ulrich, Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen has said that the Chevy Volt will fail and that anybody who buys the car is an idiot. Not only that, de Nysschen has lumped proponents of any type of electric car into a category of "intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are." As hybrids gobble rare metals, shortage looms. Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines. Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium's magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries. Nissan Adds 'Beautiful' Noise to Make Silent Electric Cars Safe. Electric and hybrid cars, with little or no engine noise, are lauded for their silence, yet some groups including advocates for the blind say pedestrians may fail to notice them approaching. To address those safety concerns, transportation agencies in the U.S. and Japan may mandate artificial sounds for the vehicles. Clusters of plug-in cars will tax local power grids. There have been a number of studies measuring whether the national power grid can fuel large numbers of electric vehicles. But the biggest concern regarding the impact of plug-ins is at the local level, where adding just a few vehicles could strain a local circuit, said Peter Darbee, the CEO of California utility Pacific Gas & Electric, during a talk at the Business of Plugging conference here Tuesday [10/20/2009]. BMW's Electric Mini Rollout Yields 'Painful' Lessons. When Bayerische Motoren Werke AG introduced the Mini Cooper E this year in California and the New York area, first-time users of the electric car deluged the company with complaints about its deficiencies. Customers groused about uninformed dealers, connection problems, cold weather affecting recharging and a range limited to 100 miles. The back seat was taken up by the battery and recharging could take almost a day. Plug-in hybrid hype gets zapped. If you want to save big money on fuel and create a cleaner environment by buying a new, hot off the production line plug-in hybrid, you'd better hold your horses. For at least a couple of decades, plug-in hybrid vehicles are likely to cost too much for drivers to earn any financial benefit, according to a government advisory group. Presenting the Chevy Volt Dancers. How quickly dreams can become nightmares. Just a few days after the engineering team behind the Chevrolet Volt triumphantly rolled out the production version of its much-anticipated car for journalists to test, the folks in marketing followed it up with folk music, break dancing, and what looks like a few rejects from a 1986 high school production of the "Pirates of Penzance". Your Prius will kill you. If you're willing to accept that the incomplete and flawed science behind anthropogenic global warming is enough to completely restructure the global economy (which let's face it, it's probably one of the main reasons you're driving driving an electric car), then you're probably also much more inclined to believe that EMFs give you cancer. Recharging and other concerns keep electric cars far from mainstream. It was dark and rainy, and the battery on his nifty Mini E electric car was almost gone. Paul Heitmann rolled quietly through the suburban New Jersey gloom, peering through the rain on the windshield, not sure what he was looking for, anxiety turning into panic. He needed juice. The Editor says... Let me remind you that there are lots of neighborhoods in every big city in America where you can get killed if you run out of gas (or electricity) and appear to be stranded and helpless. Top Ten Green Auto Headlines of 2009. In late February, a White House auto task force took over GM and Chrysler to chart a new course by developing more fuel-efficient products like the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. The companies' error, explained White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, was never investing "in alternative energy cars. They got dependent on big gas guzzlers." One month later, in its report on GM's viability, the task force declared the Volt a money-loser that "will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable." It's easy to buy lemons with somebody else's money. Obama administration to buy first 100 Chevy Volts. The White House said today that the government will "purchase the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll off American assembly lines" before the end of the year. The Volt, which GM describes as an extended range electric vehicle, is the only model that fits that description. GM began building Its first production Volts at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant today. Alexander co-sponsors bill to expand use of electric cars. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander joined two Democratic colleagues on Thursday [5/27/2010] in proposing legislation to promote the use of electric cars and trucks. No hybrids at White House. President Barack Obama's latest focus on improving fuel economy standards for 2017-2025 prompted Business Insider to review how the government's car collection is meshing with candidate Obama's campaign platform. "Within one year of becoming president, the entire White House fleet will be converted to plug-ins as security permits," Obama said in a 2008 energy plan. Electric car goes 623 miles on single charge. A car group in Tokyo recently drove an electric car 1,003.184 kilometers (about 623 miles) on a single charge, breaking its own record for greatest distance traveled without recharging. The Japan Electric Vehicle Club has asked Guinness World Records to certify the event, held at a track in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, last month. The Editor says... Okay, the car went 623 miles. But at what speed? Fast enough to avoid being a nuisance on the freeway? Faster than a bicycle? First 4,400 Volt buyers to get free chargers. General Motors will offer the first 4,400 buyers of its Chevrolet Volt the option of having a 240-volt charging station installed in their home when the car is released this fall, the company said Thursday [6/17/2010]. White House Backs Electric-Car Aid. The Obama administration on Tuesday backed a proposal to spend up to $6 billion more on subsidies for electric vehicles, amid renewed interest on Capitol Hill in measures to cut petroleum consumption in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ... The federal government has already spent billions of dollars to spur the development of plug-in cars, including funds from a $25 billion program to help auto makers retool plants, $2.4 billion in stimulus money for battery development and other projects, and a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-car purchases. Obama, Say It Isn't So! President Obama was out and about yesterday and not playing golf. He was first in Missouri stumping for Carnahan and then on to Nevada (14% unemployment) to stump for his right hand wing nut Harry Reid. In Missouri, he was touting the benefits of a green truck factory which, by the way, is not hiring, is three times more expensive than your average fossil fuel fueled trucks, and is exhausting the stimulus money (our tax dollars) even as we speak. California may have the highest costs for charging electric vehicles, study says. Californians may end up paying the highest electricity rates in the country to charge their electric vehicles, a new study says. The state's tiered rate system, in which customers are charged higher rates as they use more electricity, could make plug-in hybrid and battery-powered vehicles more costly to own, according to a Purdue University study. London to Edinburgh by electric car: it was quicker by stagecoach. In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days — with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels). What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. Back to the Environmental Issues Page Back to Supposedly good ideas that may not be good at all Jump to Environmentalists Oppose Every Practical Source of Energy Back to the Home page 
|
