An Electrifying Irony (false promises and hopes in the transportation market)

An Electrifying Irony (false promises and hopes in the transportation market). By Kenneth P. Green
Master Resource, April 3, 2009

To those who have a memory that transcends more than a few weeks, recent events in the auto sector must induce a great feeling of irony.

Back in August of 2008, then-candidate Obama called for 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles to be on the road by 2015.

To that end, then-candidate Obama called for:

• $4 billion in tax credits to American automakers to retool plants for the production of plug-in hybrid cars capable of 150 miles to the gallon;
• A $7,000 tax credit for consumers who bought early model plug-in vehicles

Then-candidate Obama also vowed that half of all cars purchased by the federal government would be plug-in hybrids or all-electric by 2012.


As both candidate and president, Obama has repeatedly raised plug-in hybrids as a vital technology for greening Detroit.

Fast forward to a recent item in the Wall Street Journal that reports: ”In a five-page analysis of GM’s viability, the [Obama car] team critiqued GM’s marquee next-generation project, the electric-powered Chevy Volt, as ‘too expensive to be commercially successful in the short-term.’” Thomas Edison told Henry Ford as much in 1896.

Ah, the irony is palpable. And it’s not as if we hadn’t told them so. We did. In Stop the Green Carjacking, an article I wrote for The American last year, I observed:

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that plug-in hybrid vehicles cost $3,000 to $7,000 more than regular hybrids, even though the performance differences between the two models are slight, and the really fuel-efficient hybrids cost $12,000 to $18,000 more than the conventional brand.

And for the Volt, I observed:

Consider the Chevy Volt. When it was first announced, the price estimate from General Motors (GM) was $30,000. That soon jumped to $35,000. Now GM’s president says that the actual price could be closer to $40,000, and that GM will still lose money on the sale.

I wonder if Mr. Obama will give taxpayers back that $4 billion in tax credits he was giving the automakers for his plug-in hybrid dreams?