"Given current prices for vehicles and fuel, in most cases the existing tax credits do not fully offset the higher lifetime costs of an electric vehicle compared with those of an equivalent conventional vehicle or traditional hybrid."
Toyota Motor Corp has scrapped plans for widespread sales of a new all-electric minicar, saying it had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.
Government Motors doesn't have that luxury - GM’s discounts on the Volt are more than four times the industry’s per-vehicle average, according to TrueCar estimates.
"Given current prices for vehicles and fuel, in most cases the existing tax credits do not fully offset the higher lifetime costs of an electric vehicle compared with those of an equivalent conventional vehicle or traditional hybrid."
Therefore the obvious thing is to jack up the tax credits until they do. Long live Gaia and her prophet Obama! pbuh!
GM gets roughly $30,000 for every Volt.
So it could be losing at least $30,000 per car.
-
That's not so bad for a Government Motors car.
Considering that same government has paid $25,000 dollars for a toilet seat,
$35,000 for a hammer.
A famous quote on Bankruptcy. "At first we went bankrupt gradually, then suddenly".
Obama,
Most of it is my fault,
to some degree..
RFB
"bankrupt gradually, then suddenly." Ha.
GM will do great as long as Ben Bernarkey keeps counterfeiting money.
I'll tell you where the electric vehicle success story is - in China - they export 3 million electric bikes (E-scooters) a year to us. I see them everywhere and in some cities they are almost as common as motorcycles.
These e-scooters have several marketing and engineering aspects which puts them ahead of e-cars as a transportation success.
•They work as advertised and even exceed advertised specs.
•They give value for dollar – for the cost of a high end bicycle you can have reliable motorized transportation capable of carrying a passenger or cargo.
•They provide low cost mobility for people who may not be up to riding a bicycle
•They are better than their competition (the bicycle) – faster (30mph plus), more comfortable and able to carry a load
•They require no gas, oil, licence, registration plates or costly insurance.
•No parking costs, park in the bike stand areas
•Riding at night is safe and reliable with full lighting and signals
•Transportation is limited to where you can ride a bike but they will go 50-60 mi. on a charge.
I bought one for shits and giggles and it’s fun, quiet, reliable and gets me to and from appointments/shopping faster than a car in rush traffic. One of the best value for cost items I ever purchased. Now if the North American Car industry would take some pointers from these scooter manufactures – go to a low cost, low maintenance, reliable low cost local transportation market – and stop trying to compete with gas vehicles until the battery tech is there, they might turn a profit.
IMHO considering performance and range, there isn’t an E-car on the market worth more than $10K. Get the costs below that and compete with motorcycles for comfort and cargo and local/short inter-city travel and you will have a winner.
Meanwhile, in the heartland of the Eco Greenie Fruits & Nutters, progressives secretly get rich off fracking for oil and gas.
"BEVERLY HILLS HIGH
Right at the heart of one of the most affluent and exclusive communities in the country, oil producer Venoco extracted almost 114,000 barrels of crude and 103 million cubic feet of natural gas, as well as 807,000 barrels of waste water, from 19 conventional wells on the campus of the famous Beverly Hills High School last year, according to state records.
Across Beverly Hills, 95 wells are currently producing from two pools, which lie entirely beneath a heavily built up area, stretching along Pico, Olympic and Santa Monica Boulevards. The wells have been drilled from four clusters (of which the High School is one), and are hidden in windowless buildings, but are otherwise part of the normal urban streetscape.
The field as a whole produced 805,000 barrels of crude oil in 2011, 1 million cubic feet of natural gas and 8.8 million barrels of waste water.
Royalties from oil and gas earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the school’s general fund."
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/25/fracking-lessons-from-beverly-hills-high/
If nothing else, we can always get a charge out of those who spend other people's money.
"Now if the North American Car industry would take some pointers from these scooter manufactures – go to a low cost, low maintenance, reliable low cost local transportation market..."
Occam, Mercedes developed a small commuter car,one passenger, for the Asian market a couple of years ago. Powered by a one cylinder diesel motor,they get 200 km/litre, speed tops out at 80 km/h.
Mercedes was also developing a slightly larger version, 2 passenger, for the same Asian market.
Only available in China or India,... pity.
I like how everyone is waiting for the next giant step forward in battery technology. For the past 50 years NASA and all the other space agencies have been putting satellites in orbit. Very few satellite were nuclear powered like the Russian spy satellites, the majority of satellites have solar panels and batteries to create and store electricity as a satellite must spend half it's time in the earth's shadow. Since the rocket scientists have been trying for decades to create the lightest, most compact and most efficient PV panels and batteries, I doubt that there are any breakthroughs forthcoming in either photovoltaic panel or battery technology.
@ Al_in_Ottawa at September 25, 2012 1:32 PM
Technically it is possible that a satellite spends more than half its time outside the earth's shadow.
On the other extreme, an object launched into an orbit that follows the terminator results in a beta angle of 90 degrees ( = 90°), and the object is in sunlight 100% of the time.[2] An example would be a polar orbit initiated at local dawn or dusk on an equinox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_angle
Most electric chairs get better mileage than a Volt.
Somewhat related, the cost of McGuinty's folly is now up to $640,000,000. Oakville gas plant cancellation includes $200,000,000 for additional new power lines so they can move the plant into the country away from urban users. Obviously this will not include the extra cost associated with line losses over the life of the plant, getting power to Oakville and Mississauga from Sarnia. This will ultimately be a billion dollar boondoggle.
Contempt cannot begin to describe liberal scum.
An electric car with a putative range of one to two hundrec miles. Ford sold a lot of them - in 1915. As did a lot of other companies.
Hmm: put in better brakes, add seat belts - could be workable...
Nah. No government here would allow it on the road.