August 13, 2009
(The Swamp) - If you are looking for any sanity in the American auto market, don't look to General Motors. They're doing the same old thing - even with the same old toys. The Chevy Volt is symptomatic of this caress of
antiquated thinking.
Remember what a C.A.F.E. standard is? It's the AVERAGE miles per gallon achieved by an entire company's fleet, produced under an entire company's name. If you have a semi which gets one gallon per mile and a push cart which gets 100 miles per gallon, your C.A.F.E. average is 50 miles per gallon. It doesn't matter how much it costs. It doesn't matter how generally available it is, as long as there is a real product being turned out at some factory.
In General Motor's latest news release, they proclaim that the Chevy Volt will get 200+ miles per gallon if it's driven around town, but only 23MPG, if it's generally driven on trips of over 40 miles. It will cost $40,000! It's a vehicle that's guaranteed not to sell well. But according to C.A.F.E. standards, it doesn't matter. At ALL! GM can now continue making the gas-guzzlers people actually want (but most can't and won't afford), Obama people hate and use, and still look like a "jolly green giant." Ho, Ho, Ho.
Now, mind you, there are, already, electric cars being produced which go 90mph and can do so for 100 - 240 miles or more per charge, and soon the charge time will be around 5 to 10 minutes for a ¾ charge (15 min for full charge - right now, it's an over-night deal). You will need to spend $2.45 per charge and save $75 - $100 per month to replace your batteries every four -to-five years. This is still considerably less than the cost of gasoline now and certainly two-times less than it will be in the future. A "mini" will cost between $25 - 35 thou. The all-electric Canadian ZENN will cost around $15,000, with air. All of these will be available in the Fall of 2010. Even then, the science will have left these cars in the dust as the newer Zenns (in five years) will have the ultracapacitor which charges in 1.5 seconds - yes, that figure is quoted correctly.
And Barack Obama thinks the GM Chevy VOLT is really great! Well, why not? He's the de facto president of the dang company!
In other words, General Motors, with our billions upon billions of tax dollars, slavishly forced to do business with wastrel unions, toadying up to the new Federal boss, have given lip-service only to the greening of the Earth. They are doing the exact same thing that they did under the Bush administration, with the exception that, now, they are failing with OUR money. So it doesn't matter that, from the start, the Chevy VOLT is an inferior creation; It only matters that this instant failure helps the corporation meet C.A.F.E. standards. Ironically, like so many government ideas, it looks really good, on paper.
Only the pathetically stupid, or Progressive Cool-Aid drinker, or intimidated corporate fleet purchasing officer, will be buying a Chevy VOLT.
The words of people like Rush Limbaugh and Charles Krauthammer now come back to haunt us - "This is not about saving the earth, or saving General Motors, or saving America. It's about saving of the Auto Workers Union." [This is a direct Limbaugh quote, the Krauthammer quote is more eloquent, but equal in meaning.]
Compared to the health care scandal, this isn't worse. But bad is bad, and the Chevy VOLT is very much a crappy waste of your tax money and a prophetic vision of the failure of General Motors - as well as America.
- Dick Anderson
