Consumers Reject Chevy Volt

National Legal & Policy Center ^ | March 10, 2011 | Peter Flaherty

[jazusamo]

Part 4: GM by the Numbers

Last week, the Volt, GM's signature hybrid vehicle, turned in a lackluster performance in its first series of road tests by Consumer Reports. CR told Reuters on Monday that "when you look at the finances, [the Volt] doesn't make any sense." The publication went on to note that the Volt was "not particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and not particularly good as a gas vehicle... This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."

GM and the Feds are betting the farm - and their credibility - on the Volt. As Truth About Cars editor Edward Niedermeyer wrote last year in the New York Times, the history of the Volt was never about making a "best in class" green vehicle, it was always about making the bailout look palatable - whatever the cost. And according to Niedermeyer, it's quite a cost:

Start with the $50 billion bailout...add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt's Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for 'retooling' its plants, and you've got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.

More troubling still is that the average American taxpayer who foot the bill for GM's massive bailout, isn't even getting a car they can afford. In 2009, Obama's Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry reported that the Volt "will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term."

A Washington Post editorial last August echoed the sentiment, describing the Volt as far too expensive for average Americans and suggesting the only way to sell Volts, even to the well off, was with a large federal subsidy. It argued that that each Volt subsidy comes at the cost of federally supported income redistribution... to America's most wealthy.

But all of the bellyaching and criticism WILL be irrelevant if consumers actually embrace the new hybrid vehicle. How's it going so far? See below.

Related:

Consumers Reject Chevy Volt

GM Gooses Sales With Incentives

GM Boosts Lobbying; Hires Bailout Specialists

GM Shares Will Likely Never Break Even for Taxpayers

GM Shares Hit All-Time Low

[Emperor Palpatine]

[Robwin]

By golly I see a Government Motor Yugo in our collective futures.

[Dr. Sheldon Cooper]

ReVolting.

[DBrow]

http://media.gm.com/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Mar/0301_gmsales/_jcr_content/rightpar/sectioncontainer/par/download/file.res/DeliveriesFeb2011.pdf

I think they sold less than 700 last year.

I think FedGov is going to make it THE car to buy for government service. Post office, ICE, FBI...thousands and thousands sold.

[The Citizen Soldier]

In other news the GM FCO announced his retirement today effective April 1st. No explanation was given for is departure...

Do you suppose it could have anything to do with the drummed up Obama IPO offering of GM last November at $34.19, which if you bought 10,000 shares ($341,900 + broker fee) would be worth $314,200 today? That's a nice 9% loss in just four months!

Does the CFO possibly know when the Government is going to dump their remaining shares and drive the price down another 10%??

Just wondering...

[Mayr Fortuna]

Hey Americans?

It just occurred me a comparison...

There are some man, that have the Midas Touch - Everything they touch transforms into GOLD!

Your´s President have the SHIT TOUCH...

[Brookhaven]

So they have spent 50+ billion and sold 1000 in three months.

Let’s be generous and say they sell 5,000 by the end of the year. That means each car cost $10 million dollars to make?

Is my math right here?

[screaminsunshine]

Me too. Another Obama scam.

[gov_bean_ counter]

#45.

Absolutely. The man is part of the fraud perpetrated against the American people.

[JPG]

The New Chevy Volt, now standard equipped with a 40 mile long extension cord. (Recommend to drive only on straight roads)

[seowulf]

Obama Car Czar, Homer Simpson and the Volt Homer Ltd. Edition.

[Revolting cat!]

Well, how about Opel (GM) Ampera?!

[A_Tradition_Continues]

Buy a Volt or get the electric chair!

Would that chair be powered by "green" energy?

[hoosierham]

You could at least afford and drive an Edsel;the Volt is an over-priced exercise in wishful thinking.But isn’t every program championed by liberals based on wishs and fairy tales?

[packrat35]

Well FR has its own brand of idiots who support the Volt and call us idiots for not buying the overpriced golf carts.

[satan]

Maybe the Obama team thought Billy Mays was still alive?

[9422WMR]

“What GM should do is take all the powerplant and drivetrain from the Volt and install it into an Aztek body.”

No, please let that dog die a quick death.
Now if they were smart and they are not, they should put that powerplant in the 1981 Chevette body!!
Oh yea/S

[MtnClimber]

Mass electric chair use reporten on windy days.

[MtnClimber]

Mass electric chair use reported on windy days.

[catnipman]

I counted about 66 billion in GM taxpayer bailouts. Divide that by 1000 Volts and you get a cost to the taxpayers of $66,000,000 each. Obammunism in a nutshell! Not even Ayn Rand could have imagined something that insane.