"Barack Obama recently proposed increasing the subsidy for electric cars by 25%, to $10,000, in order to help "Government Motors" sell the Chevy Volt. Evidently, even that generous incentive is failing to entice more people to buy them.
The Washington Examiner reported last week that GM had hoped to sell 45,000 Volts this year. But they sold just over 1,600 in January and February. At that pace, they will sell fewer than 10,000 of the electric/gas cars. CNN reports that the $40,000 starting price turned off potential buyers, especially when similarly sized vehicles were half the price. Even at $5.00 a gallon, $20,000 buys a lot of gas!
So it wasn't at all surprising when GM announced Friday that it was temporarily suspending production of the Volt and laying off 1,300 workers. This isn't rocket science. It's fundamental economics. Like Solyndra and other stimulus projects, Obama's "green" bets are not paying off."
Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families
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