Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Shock, Consternation: Chevy Volt Sales Plummet

The much ballyhooed "green" automobile -- ostensibly one of Barack Obama's success stories -- is, as any 16-year old male could have predicted, an abysmal and catastrophic failure.

The Chevy Volt has inarguably been the poster child for President Obama's push to electrify America's auto fleet. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to produce and subsidize the plug-in electric car. For years we have heard about the supposedly amazing technology for the Volt which would lead America to energy independence, be a "game-changer" for General Motors and provide a multitude of new green jobs. Proclamations were made that supply for the wonder-car could not keep up with the demand. Well, March's sales figures are in and give further confirmation that the lofty claims were all lies.

March's sales for the Chevy Volt plunged over 35% from last year to a paltry 1,478 units. To put that in perspective, that's about one Volt sold every two months per dealership. The number is also down from an only slightly less paltry 1,626 sales in February. GM's excuses for the poor performance seem to be drying up as quickly as the demand for the Volt. During GM's sales conference call, management claimed that sales are "stable" and that they are "feeling good about the trend." Such dishonesty brings into question GM's credibility.

In the past, GM claimed that lack of supply was the reason for low Volt sales. In addition, GM indignantly blamed a Republican conspiracy to hurt Volt sales as a contributing factor to the dismal sales figures for the car. Regarding supply, a recent search on cars.com showed that 6,804 new Chevy Volts are available nationwide. That's about a five months supply...

GM and the Obama Administration have done what they can to prop up sales of the Volt and give the false appearance of success. Lease terms were manipulated to manufacture demand, as GM even admitted. Crony Corporation General Electric (supplier of charging stations) agreed to purchase 15,000 of the vehicles. Localities, and even the military, used taxpayer dollars to purchase Volts. And worst of all, wealthy buyers of the Volt receive a federal tax credit of $7,500 each to purchase (or lease) the vehicles.

So, now we have one more indicator that the Chevy Volt hype has all been a farce. Yet there is still no admission nor is there any accountability for the hoax that cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The lie lives on as few will criticize the politically-sensitive green failure. The Congressional Budget Office reported that electric vehicle subsidies will cost taxpayers about $7.5 billion over a few years for little benefit...

As the nation faces imminent bankruptcy, will anyone in legacy media report on this idiotic and utterly predictable failure? That's a rhetorical question: we don't have a real media any longer; we have an established Beltway pundit class, more interested in getting invited to the right cocktail parties than actually doing their job.

Which also describes the RINO establishment.


8 comments:

Chandler's Ghost said...

I guess the government stopped buying them en masse to inflate sales figures.

Jefferson Ohio said...

Viewing the picture, I didn't know they came equipped with a tailgate bbq.Such genius marketing!



Unknown said...

I love how people that have zero real world experience with the Volt feel compelled to cut and paste radically conservative gibberish from other douchey web sites.

The reality is I will put gas in my Volt today.... This will be the first time I have had to do that since June... of last year. In 12 months I have saved well over 300 gallons of gas and couldn't be happier with the purchase.

Without getting sucked into the political nonsense, the Volt has paved the way for what will be many many different vehicles assisted by battery. This is good for Americans.

By 2015 the DOE projects the battery cost will be nearly half of what they were in 2011 thus the cost for such a vehicle will be substantially less. GM has said as much regarding the next incarnation of the Volt.

The owners of Volts have driven over 150 million real world miles. 150 million! Maybe it's just me but I'm fairly sure the early adopters of the Volt did you a favor. A huge favor everyone will benefit from in future vehicles.

Some people lead others just cut and paste isn't that right Doug.

directorblue said...

Hey, Dave - I could give a crap less about your experience with the Volt and how wonderful it is.

The true cost of the Volt is roughly $250,000 - yet another way the government is stealing from the makers of society, laundering it through the bureaucracy, and then sending it through to government motors and the unions.

Tell me: did you take advantage of the tax break on your Volt?

Our kids paid for that! You and your kind are STEALING from our kids' future with massive, un-repayable debts and you're crowing about your damn coal-powered car.

Give me a f***ing break.

Joe Kidd said...

FLASHBACKS: Plant that got $150M in taxpayer money to make Volt batteries furloughs workers
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/08/lg-plant-that-got-150m-to-make-volt-batteries-in-michigan-puts-workers-on/

"Business is so slow at one taxpayer-funded electric vehicle battery maker that employees there are spending their time playing video games, board games and card games just to pass the time."
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/19/taxpayer-backed-battery-makers-employees-pass-time-playing-cards-video-games/

Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up to $250K Per Vehicle
Analyst: 'This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant'
http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16192

As of October 2012:
President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/18/president-obamas-taxpayer-backed-green-energy-failures/
The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:
1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Chemical Power ($150 million)
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*
*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Obama Volt 2012
http://www.obamavolt2012.com/Site/Obama_Volt_2012.html

How did our investment in Government Motors turn out?
We'll lose over 12 Billion Dollars!
http://www.bailoutcost.com/

The list above is so bad, let's mix this in for levity's sake...
“Do you smell something? Why yes...yes you do.”
Parody video by Ben Howe CATCHES FIRE!
Chevy Volt - Building a Better Tomorrow
http://vimeo.com/37540767

Anonymous said...

"real world experience with the Volt" lol

Anonymous said...

You cant do energy indenpendence on the cheap by cherry picking new tech with small amounts of public funding. You should focus on lobbying your government to stop selecting winners and losers , but rather do what has work so well for others. Use tax incentives to incent producers, both oil and alternate energy.

This is what worked so well for the oil sands development, 50 billion worth of public tax incentives over 15 years not only made Canada energy independent, but the US is now a major Canadian oil importer!

In 2009 the US, Canada and the other G20 nations signed an agreement to stop all oil subsidies ( will be phased out by 2017). This means that alt energy is the only way the G20 governments can assist energy independence with incentives. And right now less than 10 percent of what was being invested by tax payers into oil energy is be redirected into alt energy
Projects.

Sure it will save a lot of tax payer money, but what if alter energy is not up to archiving energy independence ?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the Chevy Volt!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I drive mine, I reduce our dependence on oil and since I switched to 100% wind from the grid, each time I drive I help to build the wind infrastructure. But better than propping up the Middle East don't ya think!?!?!? Better than having to have more wars there.

Also, 20 solar panels, in PA, gain enough power to charge the Volt for 100 miles. 100 miles per day!!! Think about that.