Leaders Learn from their Failures, Others Perpetuate Them.

By Elizabeth Nelson

Obama, from day one of his Presidency, has pushed Green Energy

“We can’t have an energy strategy for the last century that traps us in the past. We need an energy strategy for the future – an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy.” - President Barack Obama, March 15, 2012 

His push for Green Energy, here in the USA, wouldn’t be a problem if, every investment he made wasn’t coming up a dismal failure.

...we learned sales of the Volt and Leaf cratered, President Obama's failed green jobs program is under investigation, and another "clean energy" companies in trouble. Green is the new red.

Each week, it seems, brings fresh evidence that the Obama administration's obsession with so-called clean energy is an increasingly costly failure.

January car sales data out this week provided additional proof that consumers are turning their backs on electric cars, making President Obama's pledge to get a million of them on the road in three years look even more ridiculous.

Chevy sold just 603 Volts in January. (It sold almost five times as many gas-guzzling, 12 mpg Suburbans that same month.) Nissan moved just 676 Leafs, and the company hasn't sold more than 1,000 in five months.

And these dismal sales figures come in a month when overall auto sales were surprisingly strong — hitting a high not seen since May 2008.

Consumers' lack of interest in electric cars helped push another Obama-backed company — Ener1 — into bankruptcy protection late last week, despite the $118 million grant its battery-making subsidiary got from the Energy Dept. As the CEO put it, the company suffered a lack of demand, thanks to lower-than-hoped-for electric car sales.

Ener1 joins two other failed green companies — Solyndra and Beacon Power — that took $571 million in taxpayer subsidies down with them. - Read more Investor's Business Daily

Now he’s taking his failed, Green Energy agenda, and America Tax dollars, to Africa, because it’s working so well here.

The U.S. government is spending $20 million to “help clean energy projects in Africa get started.” Those projects include wind farms and solar panels, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced at the recent Rio +20 Conference in Brazil. - Read more CNS NEWS 

However, when we look at president GW Bush’s contribution to Africa, we see a totally different story, and a legacy of life that touches not only Africa but the USA as well. 

Bush has earned widespread praise, including from Obama, for his administration’s focus on Africa and the fight against HIV/AIDS. The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief – or PEPFAR – committed $15 billion to helping eradicate the disease and has been widely credited for saving up to 2 million lives. 

                                        ---------------------------

The Obama administration has continued to fund the PEPFAR program. “When PEPFAR was launched, the world feared for the future of this continent,” Rhodes said. “In June, the millionth baby born without HIV and AIDS was born because of PEPFAR. So what we are seeing is something that no one thought was possible turn into reality.” - WaPo

Great men lead, after they’ve been knocked down, get up, brush off the dirt, admit to everyone that they made a mistake, learn from it, and move on!  Cowards blame others, learn nothing, and therefore continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, often making mistakes others before them have made!  Intelligence is learning from your mistakes, wisdom is learning from other’s mistakes.

GM cuts prices on Volt to spur falling sales as does Nissan with its Leaf

By Rob Janicki

With signs that sales of its Chevrolet Volt battery car could be coming unplugged, General Motors is offering potential buyers as much as $5,000 in incentives – making it the latest maker to try to cut prices in a bid to boost lagging demand for electric vehicles.

This GM cut is in addition to the federal rebate and any state rebates such as offered by California.  So why are GM and Nissan both making cuts and continuing to push the GM Volt and the Nissan Leaf?

manufacturers like GM and Nissan are under heavy pressure to make their electric vehicle programs a success – at almost any cost – in part because of pressure they face in the nation’s largest state, California, where regulators require all major makers to offer a minimum number of so-called Zero-Emission Vehicles.

With that kind of pressure being applied by the largest state market in the United States, it's no wonder that GM and Nissan are going to continue production of their respective Volt and Leaf models.  It certainly isn't because they see these models as great money makers any time in the future. 

Here's how California is approaching their mandate for GM with taxpayers picking up the tab for all these rebates.

A California buyer can now purchase a Chevrolet Volt for as little as $28,495. The base price for the plug-in is $39,995 but all buyers qualify for $4,000 off on a 2013 model and $5,000 off for a 2012 Volt. They also can get an extra $1,000 if they are currently leasing a non-GM vehicle. Meanwhile, the federal government provides a $7,500 tax credit while the state kicks in another $1,500. 
Unlike GM and Nissan, which refrain from divulging their costs of production of their vehicles, 

Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has publicly confirmed that the company will lose at least $10,000 for each of the Fiat 500e electric vehicles it recently introduced.

Industry analysts have estimated it actually costs GM as much as $75,000 to build each Volt, or nearly twice the base price. 

Read this latest report from NBC News with the full account of the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf production today and going forward.

Sure, drop the sales price of Obama's Chevy Volt to $0 and I might buy one

By Rob Janicki

Some days you just can't give stuff away and the electric car is the white elephant from the Obama administration.

Government Failure: Two years ago the president announced his goal of putting 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015. Did he mention that to reach that target the unpopular cars might have to be given away?

The market for electric cars is so weak that consumer costs are approaching almost nothing. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that in order to "spark buyers for electric cars," there is a need to "drop the price to nearly $0."...

It's not quite there yet, but it's moving in that direction.  Obama, with his knack of doubling down on stupid, has done it again with electric cars.

Despite taxpayer money already wasted on forcing a technology that's not ready, President Obama last month proposed raising the Energy Department's vehicle research budget by 75% — adding $575 million in spending. He also wants to raise the federal tax credit for buying an electric car from $7,500 to $10,000.

This comes even after he proposed to spend $5 billion on the 1 million-electric-cars promise...

Let's compare American consumers for electric cars to American consumers for the quintessential pickup truck.

The truth that Obama and the political left won't acknowledge is that Americans don't want these cars that they're forced to subsidize. Sales of the Chevrolet Volt, the most popular plug-in electric, were only 23,461 last year. (Shouldn't Chevy be grateful for poor sales, since it loses as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds?) 

Compare its sales to those of an automobile the public really wants: Ford's F series pickup trucks, of which more than 645,000 were sold in 2012...

For more fun filled facts, read the remaining article here. 

Hold on there Long Ranger! There is some hope for the Fisker Karma.

By Rob Janicki

Okay, there is no hope for the Fisker Karma as an all electric car.  But, American ingenuity has found a solution of what to do with the Fisker Karma carbody and chasis.

A tiny boutique automaker called VL Automotive has quietly introduced a four-door luxury sedan called Destino ahead of its scheduled debut at the Detroit Motor Show...

Virtually unknown, VL Automotive is the brainchild of entrepreneur Gilbert Villareal and Bob Lutz, a former General Motors executive who was an avid supporter of the Chevrolet Volt.  With this in mind, it is slightly surprising that VL's first car is a Corvette-powered Fisker Karma...

Even GM's Volt guy is behind this gas guzzling Karma transition vehicle.

The Destino comes standard with a direct-injected 6.2-liter LT1 V8 engine that makes 450 horsepower and 450 lb-ft. of torque.  Customers who are after more grunt can order the car with an optional 6.2-liter supercharged LS9 V8 that raises the power output to 638 horsepower and 604 lb-ft. of torque.

Both engines can be bolted to either a four-speed automatic gearbox or a six-speed manual unit.

Since the Karma's battery pack has been tossed out, the extra power generated by the V8 engine is accompanied by a considerable loss in weight.  Performance statistics are not available but the Destino is undoubtedly able to hold its own against well-established sports sedans like the Porsche Panamera...

For car guys and gals you have to love the idea of the optional 638 horsepower LS9 V8 in a four door sedan.  Awesome!

Go here for the details on the Destino conversion of the Fisker Karma.

Fisker falters once again on bad Karma. It looks like Fisker will go bankrupt.

By Rob Janicki

We've written about Fisker Automotive Inc. electric vehicles in the past.  Here we are again with even more bad news.  So bad that this could be (and most likely is) the obituary for the electric car maker.  Today's news reveals that Fisker has missed its first payment on Monday on about $193 million dollars on its federal government loan of $529 million dollars.  It should be reiterated that Henrik Fisker, the company's founder and CEO has since left the company bearing his family name.  Fisker also recently cut 75% of its management workforce and hasn't produced a car since the summer of 2012.  

Fisker has hired a consulting firm, which specializes in bankruptcy liquidations.  One analyst described Fisker Automotive as a company with a bad business model and poor execution compounded with bad luck.  The same analyst praised Tesla's business model and their execution of their business model, while admitting that Tesla was also somewhat lucky.

Here's some moron the Obama/Biden automotive green revolution

Me and Rob J have frequently chronicled the Barack Obama sponsored failure known as the Chevy Volt and the unmitigated disaster of the Joe Biden touted Fisker Karma.

Good times, good times.

Click the Chevy Volt or Fisker Karma tags in the label section of this post for a retrospective on the billions of your dollars that have gone into the abyss of the Obama/Biden green revolution.
                        ---------------------------------------------
Bloomberg

Fisker has spent $1.3 billion in taxpayer and venture capital money, or $660,000 for each car it sold, the report said.

Fisker stopped manufacturing cars late last year and fired three quarters of its remaining workers April 5. The company’s first repayment of $20.2 million on the Energy Department loan is due April 22, the report said.

Tony Knight of Sitrick & Co., an outside public relations agency representing Fisker, declined to comment.

A U.S. House panel is scheduled to hold a April 24 hearing on Fisker and its government financing. Invited witnesses include co-founder and namesake Henrik Fisker, who resigned last month; CEO Tony Posawatz and Chief Operating Officer Bernhard Koehler, who helped start the company whose customers include singer Justin Bieber and actor Leonardo DiCaprio..  READ MORE.

Fisker Automotive in hyper overdrive fiscal death spiral

By Rob Janicki

The good news for Fisker .... 

The maker of the luxury hybrid Karma says it has “at least” $30 million in cash, and $15 million more due after settling a claim this week with its bankrupt battery maker A123 Systems, according to Reuters...

The really, really bad news for taxpayers ....

the company owes $192 million on a $193 million Department of Energy “green” loan. It was supposed to receive $529 million, but the DOE declined to pay the full amount in May 2011 after Fisker fell behind on its targets. Executives who kept their jobs are trying to renegotiate a $10 million loan payment due on April 22...

Now for the life boat for officers of Fisker Automotive ...

Fisker Automotive laid off three quarters of its staff today to avoid bankruptcy while it seeks an angel with big bucks to help it become operational again...

Let's be real.  The layoff was intended as a life jacket for the remaining officers of Fisker.  There is no chance that Fisker Automotive will survive.  The federal government has cut them off and so have a couple of Chinese suitors.

Fisker’s search for a buyer has also gone south. Chinese companies Dongfeng Motor Group  and Zhejiang Geely Holding Group both balked at the terms of its loan agreement with the DOE, according to Reuters. The auto maker recently hired restructuring lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in case it can’t find an investor or strategic partner to help keep it afloat...

Fisker Automotive could have hired David Copperfield or any other magician to pull a rabbit out of a hat, which would likely be more productive than hiring a bunch of attorneys to pull a Karma out of its death spiral.

Another government failure.  And yet, liberal progressives would have you believe that a command economy directed by government can somehow stimulate consumer demand and grow the economy.  Economics 101:  Consumer desires determine the demand on producers to provide the products and services that consumers seek.  Keynesian economics is the tail of the dog trying to wag the dog.  It just doesn't work and never has worked successfully.  Telling producers what to produce and consumers what to consume is a disaster from beginning to end.  No exception.

Read article in its entirety at the Washington Examiner

Bad Karma follows the all electric Fisker Karma automobile as Fisker founder quits

By Rob Janicki

Have American taxpayers funded technology, which may now be headed to China?  Only time will tell, but the circumstances don't look good for taxpayers.

Henrik Fisker, founder of electric car company Fisker, announced today he is leaving the company over “major disagreements” with management.

Fisker Automotive, which makes the Karma plug-in electric car, is weighing selling a large stake to Chinese company Geely, according to Forbes...

This makes perfect sense for the Chinese since they already bought most of the bankrupt battery maker, A123 Solutions, which was the battery supplier for the Fisker Karma.

A123 Systems’ failure halted Karma production completely. Fisker has sold fewer than 2,000 of its Karma, which sells for more than $100,000, CNBC reports...
Let's not forget the taxpayer's role in funding Fisker.

The troubled company was the recipient of a $529 million federal Advanced Vehicle Technology Loan by the Department of Energy, and borrowed about $193 million of that loan. But the DOE froze the unused portion of the loan because of failure to meet production deadlines...

Will taxpayers ever see any of that $193 million dollars?  Certainly not the entire amount.  But what must be remembered is that Fisker was supposed to develop proprietary technology to be applied to product production in America, thus creating good paying jobs in America.  As it stands, what technology in all electric automotive production that was gained at taxpayer expense may well find its way to China, while leaving no high paying jobs in America.

Read the full article here.

Question: What's the difference between Joe Biden and Fisker Karma Automotive Inc? Answer: One is a taxpayer subsidized failure and the other is a failed electric car company

Delaware taxpayers appear to be getting soaked twice under a deal in which the Democratic governor lent $21.5 million to a hybrid electric carmaker to set up shop in the state. The company has yet to produce a car in Delaware, and taxpayers are footing the electric bill for the idle plant. 

The deal was enthusiastically announced in 2009 by Gov. Jack Markell and Vice President Biden -- formerly Delaware's senior senator -- as a way to bring as many as 2,500 green jobs to the state. But California-based Fisker Automotive Inc. has since suffered a series of setbacks that have compounded its shaky financial situation. 

"It has not worked out the way he had envisioned," Markell spokeswoman Cathy Rossi acknowledged Monday in a statement to FoxNews.com. "We didn't know and couldn't have known about the underlying technical and financial problems."...

Obama's carefully crafted political mythology on saving the auto industry

By Rob Janicki

One of Obama's major attack thrusts against Mitt Romney in this seemingly endless presidential campaign has to do with the bailout of GM and Chrysler.

Timothy P. Carney at The Washington Examiner has an excellent deconstruction of the Obama myth making of accusing Romney of wanting to shutdown the auto industry.  I've said as much in previous posts here on CP.

Had GM, in particular, gone through Chapter 11, it could have rid itself of the onerous UAW labor union agreements, which have hamstrung it and continues to do so without any renegotiation of the many contracts it has with the UAW.  Obama acted as the bankruptcy judge and refused any renegotiation of labor contracts.  Obama also, and most egregiously, cancelled all creditor obligations.  All GM bondholders were completely shutout in recovering any money from the failing GM.  Under bankruptcy law, creditors are the first to receive any funds from the selling off of assets of the business in bankruptcy.  Many public and private pension funds were left holding worthless bonds after they had loaned GM hundreds of millions of dollars.  Where's the economic justice in that?  Everyday working class people lost that value in their retirement funds from this government usurpation of bankruptcy law and contract law.  Obama's intervention was a payoff to the UAW, since the UAW would become the majority stockholder in the New General Motors, which they still are.

On to Carney's deconstruction.
The single biggest theme of President Obama’s reelection campaign has been a misleading attack-and-brag regarding the auto bailouts.

Obama and his partymates have attacked Romney a hundred times on the grounds that Romney wrote an op-ed with the headline “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” The implication of this attack is very clear:

(1) Obama didn’t let Detroit go bankrupt. and (2) Romney wanted to liquidate the failed automakers.

Both claims are false. And I’m not inferring too much here — Obama has made both of these false claims explicitly. “We didn’t let Detroit go bankrupt,” Obama said in a June fundraiser in Baltimore. “We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt,” Obama said in his radio address two weeks ago.

Here are Chrysler’s bankruptcy filings from April 2009. Here’s an MSNBC article from a month later, reading “General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of the Obama administration’s plan to shrink the automaker….”

So, Obama actually took GM & Chrysler into bankruptcy...

Actually, Obama had already obviated bankruptcy law.  Had GM indeed gone into Chapter 11 proceedings, they could have cancelled all contracts, including their labor union contracts with the UAW.  That's where Obama created his own version of bankruptcy law.  Obama paid off the UAW by not allowing labor contracts to be rescinded.

...The second implication is that Romney wanted to drive GM & Chrysler out of business, and that he wouldn’t have bailed them out. Again, Obama repeatedly made this claim explicitly.

In the third debate, Obama said “You did not say that you would provide government help.” Later he said, “You were very clear that you would not provide, government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy.” But Romney’s op-ed explicitly calls for federal loan guarantees and federal management of the bankruptcy.

It’s hard to consider this anything than a dishonest attack by Obama, and it’s kind of amazing that he got away with it, almost entirely, until Romney called him out on it in the third debate.

These days, it’s Romney who’s playing fast and loose on the auto industry. You see, after Obama gave Chrysler to an Italian company, Fiat, corporate management said they would start building some Jeeps in China. They never said they would move any jobs out of the Jeep plant in Toledo, but that seems like the implication Romney is trying to give off in the ad — and he has asserted as much explicitly as least once.

So now the Obama campaign, which has been blatantly and constantly misleading on auto industry stuff, has taken to full-time condemnation of this “outrageous lie.” The liberal media has joined in the chorus of righteous condemnation, and the mainstream has picked up the Obama campaign’s gripes.

Give Obama this — he’s good at working the refs...

Meanwhile taxpayers are on the hook for $25 BILLION dollars which GM will never be able to payoff nor will the federal government be able to sell their 25% stock holding in GM to recover that $25 BILLION dollars, since the price of GM stock would have to more than double to do so.

Why the GM auto bailout was a failure

By Rob Janicki

We here at CP have opposed the GM bailout since we began writing about it.  It should be noted that in a moment of panic, George W. Bush, for whatever reason, began the bailout of the auto industry and Obama took it forward like it was on steroids.  It violated bankruptcy law and contract law.  It has left taxpayers currently holding the bag to the tune of a $25 billion dollar loss that, in all likelihood, will never be recovered.  Read the first few paragraphs of this article by Daniel J. Mitchell and then view the excellent video presentation of the details of the Detroit debacle.

If the Auto Bailout Was a Success, I’d Hate to See What a Failure Looks Like
Sometimes it’s no fun to be an economist. Or, to be more specific, it’s rather frustrating to understand Bastiat’s insight about the “seen” and the “unseen” and to always be asking “at what cost?” and “to what effect?” when politicians make inane statements.

The GM bailout is a good example. Politicians want us to believe that it was a success because the company is still in business. Heck, the Vice President’s favorite campaign statement is that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive”

But if you’re the type of person who recognizes the importance of tradeoffs and incentives, then it’s easy to see how a political success can be an economic failure. Which is the message of this new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation...

Obama's Chevy Volt goal only at 3%

By Correctamundo   

Last year, Obama set a goal of putting 1,000,000 Chevy Volts on the road by 2015. So how's that workin' out for him?  Like all of his pie-in-the-sky promises, he's just at 30K.

The abysmal numbers are even more surprising considering the government's efforts to prop up "green car" manufacturing. 

Electric luxury car manufacturer Fisker, for example, was approved for a $529 million taxpayer-funded government loan; the federal government cut off the funds at $193 million after sales fell woefully short of required targets. The struggling electric car maker recently recalled 2,400 of its Karma vehicles when one caught fire due to problems with its cooling fan.

Similarly, lithium-ion battery manufacturer Ener1, Inc., which received a $118.5 million taxpayer-funded grant, filed for bankruptcy. And Aptera Motors has already folded. [..] Breitbart

It should be obvious to everyone that the green energy sector still has some work to do. Trying to get 'green' green energy technology to just happen overnight doesn't work. I know Obama wants it to work sooo badly to appease his tree hugger friends, give his cronies some much-needed tax dollars to pad their retirement accounts, and to get reelected.  But I think that's strike one, two, and three collectively. And no one in the federal government is going to drive these things.  When the WH trades in its limousines for a couple dozen Chevy Volts, I'll give up my gas guzzlers. 

Oh, and Mr President - come January, there is ONE promise you'll be able to keep, albeit it'll come a little earlier than you expected:

"And five years from now -- when I'm not president anymore -- I'll buy one and drive it myself," Obama said to thunderous applause. "Yes, that's right."

UPDATE: As of this afternoon, it's being reported that GM is losing as much as $49,000 on EACH Volt.

GM Halts Production Of Chevy Volt For A Month

By Rob Janicki

Here we go again.  Another Chevy Volt episode.  The good news is that no Chevy Volt was injured in the preparation of this article.

[...] General Motors is halting, for a month, the manufacture of its well-known Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car. [...]

I am shocked!  Shocked I say!  This will be the second time this year that GM has shutdown the vaunted Chevy Volt production line at its Hamtramck, MI, plant.

[...] the Detroit-Hamtramck plant will suspend production from Sept. 17 until Oct. 15. [...]

[...] GM late Monday disputed published reports that the move is because of slow Volt sales. GM sold 10,666 Volts through July, way up from the 2,870 sold during the same period a year earlier. [...]

To be fair to GM, this shutdown was a convergence of a convenient plan to gear up the plant for the 2013 Impala and beyond to the 2014 Impala redesign, while stopping production of the super slow selling Chevy Volt.  At the current consumer consumption of Chevy Volts, it is reported that there may be up to a 60 day supply sitting around the country on dealer lots.  Considering this condition, shutting down the Chevy Volt production line to accommodate the model year changeover for Impalas was the only sensible plan. 

[...] The 2014 Impala, a complete redesign, is an important model for Chevy, and GM wants to take extra time preparing the factory to ensure a high-quality launch, [...]

GM halts Volt production...again

By Rob Janicki
We haven't reported anything lately about one of favorite automotive boondoggles from General Morons.  Yes, I am talking about the GM Volt , the hybrid electric/gas car that you can light your cigarettes from the battery fires some Volts have experienced.

WSJ
[...] What happened to the strong demand for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that was supposed to turn cars like the Chevrolet Volt  and Nissan Leaf into hot sellers?

Well, neither is setting sales records and Chevrolet said yesterday it would temporary halt production of the Volt because it simply has too many cars on hand and has been turning them out faster than it can find buyers. [...]

Yes, GM is once again halting production of Chevy Volts for, what is this, the third time?

[...] The Volt starts at about $40,000, or twice as much as the company’s high-mileage Cruze Eco compact sedan.

Even if you never used gasoline in the Volt, you’d wait about 12 years before you saved enough on gas to make up for the Volt’s price premium. [...]

I wonder if that takes into account the number of expensive battery change outs that would have to occur over that 12 year period of investment recovery?

[...] Chevy sold 7,671 Volts last year. Nissan’s all-electric Leaf didn’t do much better with 9,674 sales — less than half what Nissan had expected. Car makers often give up on conventional vehicles that post such poor numbers. The company sold 231,732 copies of the Cruze last year. [...]
It should be remembered that the Chevy Cruze Eco gets 40 miles per gallon.  How much longer can GM support a failure such as the Chevy Volt, especially in light of the fact that GM is teetering precariously on another possible bankruptcy situation?  Will GM be forced to continue carrying the Volt as long as the federal government is a silent partner in this failing enterprise?

Fisking Freaking Fisker

By Rob Janicki


This article from the NLPC "fisking" green/electric auto maker Fisker deserves to be read in its entirety to absorb the totality of the corporate cronyism with government.

NLPC
[...]  Automotive and green technology advocacy Web sites are abuzz with a story about a former employee of Fisker Automotive who claims the company released its $102,000-plus Karma electric sport sedan prematurely, in order to meet targets set forth by the Department of Energy so Fisker could access funds from a $529 million loan award.  

This followed reports from all over the Internet that Consumer Reports purchased a Karma in Connecticut for $107,850, only to see it totally destroyed before the magazine could run it through its tests.  [...] 

Projects like Solyndra and Fisker are just some of the growing number of examples of government sponsored failures that have come to light through outright bankruptcies, announced reductions and open ended delays in manufacturing schedules or outright product development failures.  The Obama administration needs to be held accountable for these massive government invasions of private enterprise and the absolute waste of taxpayer money.

It's been estimated that the Chevy Volt is being marketed to people with annual incomes of $170,000.  Imagine what income demographic the Fisker Karma, base price $102,000, is being marketed to.  The Obama administration is subsidizing the famous 1% that the Occupy Wall Street protest demonstrations were all about.  The irony is sweet for those of us who realize that the Fisker Karma project is as absurd as the Occupy Absurdity morons.

Read the article for all the sordid and documented details of this government planned and promoted boondoggle at the expense of taxpayers.  The corruption running through the Obama administration is simply staggering in its scope and volume. 

Energy Secretary Chu's Wife Is A Gas Guzzlin' Highway Star

By Rob Janicki
By now most reasonably informed people have seen video of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu telling the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, on Thursday, that he does not own a car.  Chu's reply came as part of his revealing statement that essentially said the administration's position on the high price of gas was that it would decrease demand for gas fueled cars and thus increase demand for hybrid electric cars.  

In other words, contrary to what President Obama has said, his administration actually wants higher gas prices in order to make electric cars or hybrid electric cars more cost competitive with gas fueled cars, even if these "green" cars are foreign imports.  The Chevy Volt still wouldn't have a prayer in becoming cost competitive to its own brother, the Chevy Cruze, a gas engine car that gets over 40mpg and is priced two and a half times LESS than a Volt.

What makes Chu's comment,  on not owning a car, quite interesting is that it has been found that his wife does own a car and it isn't any electric or hybrid electric car.

Daily Caller
[...]  TheDC (Daily Caller) has obtained motor vehicle registration records showing that Jean Chu (née Fetter) is the owner of a 2002 BMW 325i, a sports sedan with a gas-guzzling 6-cylinder engine.

And its engine requires premium gasoline.  AAA determined on Thursday that the average U.S. price for that grade of fuel was $4.03 per gallon.

When the car was first sold, its EPA-estimated fuel economy was rated at 18 miles per gallon in the city and 27 mpg on highways, according to FuelEconomy.gov, a website run by Secretary Chu’s own Department of Energy. The website reports that the car’s average fuel economy was 21 mpg — back when it had zero miles on its odometer.  [...]


I especially liked the irony in the fact that the technical data for the BMW gas mileage was obtained from a website run by Secretary Chu's own Department of Energy.

Fisker Karma: I think I can't, I think I can't...

By Rob Janicki
We, here at CP, like to think we are as technologically inquisitive as the next person, but the continuing joke called the Fiskar Karma has pushed us over into technological comedy.  See for yourself and decide,

Consumer Reports has had an interesting experience while testing a Fiskar Karma on its Connecticut test track.  For those with little of no knowledge of the Fiskar Karma, think of aChevy Volt with a price tag two and a half times greater.  The Fiskar Karma is similar to the Volt in that they both operate on electricity and both have back up gas engines.  One can only hope the Fisker Karma has a very good road care assistance program, considering its abysmal performance record.

Daily Caller
[...]  In a test conducted Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine, the niche-market $107,850 sports car conked out completely, after a short ride at 65 miles per hour on a Connecticut test track.  [...]

Chevy Volt Spoof

Posted By Rob Janicki

Git Yer Red Hot Chevy Volt While Ya Can!

By Rob Janicki


USA Today
[...]  General Motors is stopping production of the Chevy Volt and European sibling Opel Ampera for five weeks due to slow sales. 

GM told the 1,300 employees building Volts at its Detroit Hamtramck plant that they will be laid off from March 19 to April 23.

Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts in the U.S. in February and 1,626 so far this year. In 2011, it sold 7,671 -- short of its initial goal of 10,000.  [...]

Chevy had projected selling 10,000 Volts in 2011.  They had planned to produce 60,000 Volts this year, with 45,000 for sale in the U.S..  GM has not publicized its current production schedule for 2012.

[...]  Critics have pointed to its price tag and the federal subsidy of $7,500 plus state subsidies for people to buy one. They charge that the average buyer has a $170,000 household income and doesn't need to have a new-car purchase subsidized.  [...]


The Obama administration, not to be dissuaded by the abysmal sales of Volts, has decided to double down on their bet.  President Obama's latest budget proposal includes an increase from the $7,500 subsidy to a $10,000 subsidy for the Volt.  Only under Obamanomics does a losing proposition deserve an increased subsidy.  But isn't this always the liberal/progressive excuse for their economic failures?  If only they had put more money into the subsidy to begin with, sales would have skyrocketed.  To a liberal/progressive, government failure is always because government didn't put enough money into the project/policy or government had the wrong people in charge of the project/policy.  It's always about more government money and participation and the right super smart people that are necessary for success.

It gets worse. 
The Blaze
 [....]  "[L]ow emission model[s] of the 2012 Chevrolet Volt electric car are on their way to California, where customers will qualify for a $1,500 state rebate [emphasis added],”
And just in case that‘s not enough to convince you to buy the EV, the state of California has also agreed that Volt drivers will be given total access to California’s carpool lanes.  [...]

How can anyone resist such an offer?

Too Funny: The Tesla "Brick"

By Rob Janicki
Tesla Motors, home of the all electric "Brick".  This would really be funny if it weren't true.  Okay, it's true, funny and not completely unexpected for the battery technology employed.

What's Up With That?
[...]  “Tesla Motors’ lineup of all-electric vehicles .... apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle.  [...] 

Oops!

[...]  If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a “brick”: a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street.  [...] 

It can't even be towed in the conventional mode or even put on a flat bed tow truck, as the wheels lock up once the battery pack goes dead.  Once the battery is dead it cannot be recharged.  The battery is destroyed in the process of the total discharge.  Oops, again.