Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Election 2012, Military, National Security, Terrorism, The United States | Tags: Defense Department Budget, Or Guns and Ammunition?, Soldiers Need Volts?
Today, GM’s Volt electric car is much in the news because GM is losing up to $49,000 on every Volt it builds.( This doesn’t sound right!) They have sold only 13,500 Volts this year, 33.75% of it’s 40,000 goal. Even at that, hardly anyone wants to buy one. Such a dilemma. The “Optics” are very bad for Democrats who have just proclaimed GM being “alive” as one of the Obama administration’s great triumphs.
GM’s reluctant initial investment in the Volt was over $1 billion. Since it’s release on the market, the company has spent even more trying to re-engineer the vehicle to keep it from catching fire when charging overnight. Most inconvenient for the buyers who were apt to lose their garages as well as the car.
But not to worry, the Obama administration is going to help out General Motors again by buying up its struggling line of electric cars for the Department of Defense to “green up” the military, at the Volt’s baseline price of $39,995. The DOD plans to buy 1,500 Volts for $60,000,000 + tax. This is not an addition to the DOD budget, so it will displace some other military equipment purchases. Brilliant, positively brilliant. And, of course add in the amount that GM is losing on each car. Obama simply can’t stop spending, nor sending good money after bad.
GM is investing $10.5 million in their Florida retirement community that will run entirely with Volts — instead of golf carts? Burn up the old folks?
They told us that math wasn’t Obama’s strong suit, but really…
5 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Here’s the original source of the $49,000 loss per vehicle estimate, an article in Reuters:
Comment by Subsidy Eye September 11, 2012 @ 6:50 amYes, I know it came from Reuters, but the Reuters article didn’t explain that DoD would be forced to buy so many, which I think is the far more important and worrying part of the story. One of the commenters on the Breitbart story said that GM is NOT losing $49,000 on each car, it was just that Reuters didn’t understand the difference between marginal cost and sunk cost, but didn’t explain further. Oops, I missed a link.
I should add that it has been reported elsewhere that GM, in an effort to juice sales, is, as policy, making subprime loans. Read the whole link.
Comment by The Elephant's Child September 11, 2012 @ 12:41 pmI provided the link to the Reuters article only because you had included “This doesn’t sound right!” in your article, and because I hadn’t seen a link to it in your article.
But I agree with “Senator Blutarsky’s” analysis. Thanks for that. Confirms my suspicions.
Stories of government procurement as a means for supporting domestic industries is something of a hobby of mine (I know what you’re thinking: “Get a life!”), so I appreciate your bringing your readers’ attention to the rescue purchases of Volts by the military. On the other hand, maybe this will be a good recruitment ploy! Whatever else you may say about it, it’s a sporty-looking vehicle!
Wouldn’t be the first time that the military has chosen sporty and expensive over dull but cheap and functional. They do that with airplanes in particular in order, they say, to attract the best candidate pilots. See, for example, the chapter on military expenditure in The Federal Subsidy Beast : The Rise of a Supreme Power in a Once Great Democracy.
Comment by Subsidy Eye September 11, 2012 @ 1:06 pmHello, and thanks for the link above.
I couldn’t agree more on the DoD purchase of Volts; a grotesque waste of taxpayer resources under any circumstances, let alone while we are running $1 trillion deficits.
Comment by Senator Blutarsky (@USSenBlutarsky) September 11, 2012 @ 1:15 pmI just wonder what motor pool they’ll put them in. I’m sure they’ll put a few in the DC area, but idle times in traffic will them, and it’s not difficult at all to put 100 miles a day on a lot of government vehicles in that area (for awhile, my regular route was from Henderson Hall (behind Arlington National Cemetery) to Quantico, to HQMC, to Patuxent River Naval Station, to Fort Meade, to the Old Executive (next to the White House)). Southern California has the same problem (I know several people who make regular trips from San Diego to Camp Pendleton or El Toro or 29 Palms; heat would be a serious factor, too)
Comment by Lon Mead September 11, 2012 @ 1:34 pmMy guess is they’re going to wind up as the cars sent out to recruiting stations.