Shocking News

Would the government mislead us?

Would a large corporation mislead us?

Would a hybrid government/corporate organization mislead us?

** Snort **

I speak, of course, of that unholy alliance between obama and General Motors, and its bastard offspring - the Chevy Volt. (H/T Doug Ross for the link.)

About eight months ago some owners of Chevy Volts complained that charging cords were overheating, sometimes to the point of melting. At the time, GM blamed owners, saying the wall outlets were the culprits. We now finally have GM addressing the safety concerns and agreeing to replace charging cords for all 9,500 Volts that have been sold since production began. But in what is becoming a new public relations precedent, the move is not being called a "recall."

The non-recall recall is instead referred to as a customer satisfaction action which is designed to "offer a more consistent charging experience."

"More consistent charging experience" - as in your garage doesn't burn down.

The political strategy is becoming more and more evident at GM as Chevy Volt sales continue to struggle and the 2012 presidential election nears. Excuses have been made for low sales of the Volt, starting with supply constraints and more recently involving a Republican conspiracy to hurt sales. GM refuses to admit the real reason that the Volt doesn't sell well is that the car is too expensive for most consumers and the savings from gas usage do not justify the high cost.

That's what happens when the government takes an ownership position in a private-sector business. If you think this is bad, just wait and see what happens if obamacare is ever implemented.

This is the second recall customer satisfaction action for the Volt.

The first non-recall was for reinforcements to the battery pack after test vehicles at NHTSA ignited days after crash tests. In both cases, GM was adamant that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Volt; it is either the fault of owners with faulty wiring or right-wing media sources.

In a scary combination of corporate and government bullying, "GM has stepped up ad spending for the Volt on those TV networks that are accused of criticizing the car. The spending seems to be quieting the criticism."

As always, politics is trumping reason, logic, and facts.

The main subject for debate regarding the Chevy Volt and cars like it, is the taxpayer costs versus benefits, not how popular the car is or isn't. Let's summarize once again what the proposed goal of President Obama to have a million electric vehicles on the road within a few years does and what it costs. If Obama gets his way, each car gets a $10,000 tax credit. This goes to the wealthy buyers of the cars or to the dealers if the cars are sold to the government. Disregarding state credits, infrastructure costs and other subsidies for the industry we have a cost to taxpayers of $10 billion. Given the assumption that there will be about 250 million passenger vehicles on the US roads that account for less than 50% of the nation's oil consumption, we get a reduction in oil dependence of less than 0.2 percent. That's $10,000,000,000 for a 0.2 percent reduction in oil usage.

And that's ignoring the fact that electric cars are ridiculously impractical for anything but short trips (short being defined as a round trip of 50 miles or less), for two reasons. One, there are very few charging stations in this country, meaning that electric car drivers must charge them at home. Two, it takes a long time to fully charge an electric car.

The good news for Volt-heads is that Electric Highways are spreading like wildfire molasses.

First big piece of ‘Electric Highway’ gets juice

Electric car owners riding along Oregon’s Interstate 5 don’t have to worry about running out of juice on the open road.

The first major stretch of what’s been dubbed an “Electric Highway” on the West Coast from Canada to Mexico went operational Friday with the opening of a series of fast-charging stations along 160 miles of the interstate.

They are spaced about every 25 miles, so a Nissan Leaf with a range of about 70 miles can miss one station and still make it to the next. Electric car drivers will be able to recharge in about 20 minutes. The charge is free for now.

“I would say range-anxiety with these fast chargers will be nearly a non-issue for me,” said Justin Denley, who owns a Nissan Leaf. Inspired by the stations, his family is planning a trip from Medford to Portland, a distance of about 280 miles.

Last summer, he took the family on a 120-mile trip to the coast and had to include an overnight stop at an RV park to charge up.

Now, thanks to the benefits of the Electric Highway, Denley "expects the trip to Portland to take perhaps three hours longer than in a gas car."

Adding three hours to a 280 mile trip means a trip that would ordinarily take between 4 - 5 hours will now take around eight: almost a 50% increase.

The tradeoff, of course, is time for money. The trip will take longer but cost less - at least on an energy-per-mile basis. But when you factor the sticker price differential (a Nissan leaf sticker price is around $38K while a conventional Nissan Versa goes for around $11K), well, $27K buys a lot of gas, even at $4.00 per gallon.

Something to think about: Interstate 5 stretches 1,350 miles from British Columbia to Baja, Calif.

So it seems pretty clear that the electric car won't be replacing gasoline-powered ones at any time in the near future.

That is, assuming the government let's the free market do its job...