Fiat CEO: “Don’t Buy Our Electric Cars”

As much as I don’t like admitting that Obama was right about something, perhaps he did choose the right man to head up Chrysler. (But don’t worry; all the other problems with that merger still ensure that Obama comes out in the red on it overall … and hey, even a blind squirrel finds a nut in a broken clock occasionally and all that.) But I kind of like the CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne. At least the man has a little spark and honesty.

Recently, Marchionne angered pretty much everyone that helped him obtain his current position by urging people not to buy the Fiat 500e, Fiat’s electric car. Why? Because Fiat loses money on every single one of those cars, about $14,000 a pop, according to Marchionne:

“I hope you don’t buy [the Fiat 500e] because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000,” Sergio Marchionne told the audience at the Brookings Institute during a discussion of the auto bailout. . . .

 

“I’m honest enough to tell you that I will make the car, I’ll make it available which is my requirement but I will sell the limit of what I need to sell and not one more. . . . Because of California and there’s mandates which keep on moving the impositions back on car makers to produce cars that are zero-emission vehicles. . . . The other one is because of the initiative that was put in place by Obama back in 2011 with the new emission rules which are effectively binding the industry until 2025.”

 

California’s Zero Emission Vehicle standard requires a certain percentage of car makers’ vehicles to have no emissions. . . . Obama’s plan will force cars and light trucks to meet certain fuel-mileage requirements by 2025.

 

“If we just build those vehicles,” said Marchionne, “we’ll be back…in Washington asking for a second bailout because we’ll be bankrupt by Christmas.”

Let me also point out something about these “zero emission” vehicles. They aren’t actually zero emission. The fact is that they require electricity, and electricity is produced largely by what means? That’s right—fossil fuels. So even though all the happy drivers of the Fiat 500e probably feel really good about their carbon emission foot-binding, at the end of the day, they aren’t the change they think they are. Not until electric power companies change their methods of generating electricity.

This is what crony capitalism looks like. The worst part of capitalism and the worst part of big government married together in one rotten package. Whether it’s healthcare or car manufacturing, the taxpayer is always the one who foots the bill and the economy and innovation always suffer. Congratulations, big government. You’ve done it again.

185 responses

  1. There you go again Minkoff, farting thru your mouth. I remember the time before the EPA; I remember the time when a fresh New England snowfall was white for less than a day. If you think the EPA is over bearing I suggest you move to a place like China or India, just remember to bring your gas mask.

    • That’s the beauty of choice. Don’t like living in such a place, then don’t. Just don’t push your batty nuggets off on someone else just because you think you know whats best.

      • The next time you bite into that burger, remember that the FDA is the only thing standing between you and food poisoning.
        If your faucet is on fire, you can thank the oil & gas lobby for fracking near your home.

        • The FDA and USDA could have been privatized. But nope. The government had to grab a hold because it thought it knew whats best. And let me tell you. As someone that went to culinary school, worked in the service industry for 12 years, the rules and regulations they come up with, half of them are obvious they weren’t made by someone that actually worked in the field.

          • Great, so we could have rating agencies for food- sort of like S&P and Moody’s.

            Google “AAA rated securities 2008” and see how that worked out.

            I do not want some privatized USDA that gets paid by the meatpacking industry to be rubberstamping “safe” on my food. We tried that with Standard and Poors as well as Moody’s and we wound up with CDOs and the financial crisis. Fortunately, this was a financial crisis rather than Botulism, Salmonella, or Mad Cow disease.

            I’m not a big fan of expanding regulation, and I’d certainly like to scale it back where reasonable, but privatizing regulatory agencies is a horrible idea. 2008 should be a stark reminder of what happens when you outsource supervisory responsibility to the private sector.

          • Privatization works in some cases but shouldn’t be the answer to every problem or failure. What pisses me off for example are people who complain about the Post Office. These folks do a good job. I do not recall ever not getting things that were mailed to me or the other way around. UPS on the other hand, or the folks who were supposed to ship my product, lost my goods and I got stuck despite all the big claims from UPS; they pretty much gave me the run around. Nothing is perfect.
            If the Post Office needs more money, I say give it because it is one of the few things the government actually does that we see a return on.

          • Is there any limit to what they should be paved to deliver mail? Would gold faucets be too much, for example?

          • Would you rather eat food that is rubber-stamped by a politician who is paid by the food industry via political contributions? Yes, Virginia, politicians and bureaucracies will act in THEIR best interests as well. The difference is that they have rigged it to be anonymous or not accountable. They just move on to another faceless government job or put on “paid leave” (lol!). Please explain to me why an industry such as the food industry would have a business model that seeks to poison its customers. And why, please tell, is the USDA armed with sub machine guns. Such trust in unelected bureaucrats who cannot be fired, pay themselves generous bonuses based on phony stats that they report and retire on super-duper benefits that we will never see because we must actually produce something that people want. Yes, we need MORE of that and you need to pay for them to supervise you. Oh, if ONLY we could go back to the days when the USDA just inspected meat. Now they have their own armed militias and are political organizations.

          • That politician has been doing a relatively good job of letting the USDA and FDA do their jobs for the past 110 years. So no, I’m not worried. I’d much rather have a politician- one that can be easily replaced if they don’t let the FDA do its job- in there than a corporation that will become entrenched and harder to replace. (CC Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Standard and Poors, Moody’s)

        • And once again, you’re blowing hot air through your arse! I live in the middle of the Bakken oilfield, and I have no issues with my water sources (other than the township I live in sells the day’s allotment to the water trucks for the industry, and thereby shorts us residents with lack of water pressure to get any water on a regular basis). It has also been proven that the viral video that was used to slander the industry was actually a staged scenario. The person who did it, connected an ordinary water hose to the gas connection under the sink, and then to the kitchen faucet… so, yeah, it caught fire! Stupid!

          • Josef Goebbels would be proud of these folks. If they’d been around in 1935 he would have hired them to slander the folks he’d be helping to shove into camps. I mean really, how the hell could frakking ever put concentrations of gas into your water line?????

          • It’s called the Bizarro World. If you are not familiar with it, check it out under DC Comics Superman – the Bizarro World. This is what happens when liberal progressives run things.

          • Quite familiar with the strip. One of my favorites.

            And yes, it does describe the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations quite well.

          • I know, Bizarro World was the best – for a comic book series that is. Liberal progressives should’ve been warned that it’s not a healthy life style to mimic.

        • Woonsocket, really you should learn some actual facts before you start shooting off your hole. The FDA does not stand between me and food poisoning, my stove and clean kitchen do however!
          As for your faucet, stop watching the proven fictionalized accounts, those faucets they show burned long before any one drilled any where near their places. All of the examples they have pushed on uneducated people like yourself are fraudulent!! Natural gas is naturally occurring in several water sources around the country. Faucets have burned for over a century in some areas of the country. The same areas they are burning today. 🙂
          You are another poor bamboozled yoke! But at least you are proud enough to show it to everyone, just how gullible you are, thanks. 🙂

          • Poor slob can’t help it. It’s his high-quality, mob-funded Ocean State education coming through again.

            They say Massachusetts is the bluest state….from what I’ve seen, Little Rhody may be a shade or two darker blue than even this mad-house.

        • The only thing standing between people and food poising is common sense – those without common sense likely get it.
          Pink slime is making a come back. Good… me, I go to a meat shop where I know i can trust the product.

          If any faucets are catching fire honey they are catching fire in your brain.

    • Gas mask indeed! There have been a few new documentaries on the industrial sector in China. It’s becoming a landscape of pollution and garbage. Children are looking for something valuable in the garbage and it’s likely that those garbage areas have chemicals & toxic substances everywhere.

      What’s going on in China and other countries is the result of our shipping jobs overseas and doing so without any regulations, laws and safety codes. That’s what our corporate “masters” want for this country.

      • Uh huh. And that means the world is like that. Get real. It’s the same heart string tugging you try with your polar-bear-floating-on-ice-surrounded-by-water picture, point at it and say “GLOBAL WARMING!”

      • And those “new documentaries” are usually produced by libturds like yourself, to slander the truth from the people. When it’s thoroughly investigated, the truth does come out that it was twisted out of total context, in order to convince the people who lack the common sense and critical thinking skills, like yourself, that it’s all man-made. As buckman21 says… Get real. Look and read between the lines before you spout toro caca!

        • The “michael moores” of the world who have no problem lying and fabricating “evidence” to prove their point.

          • You are mistaken. They have no point, really, and many of them (Moore and Gore, for example) know this in their, ahem, hearts. They do it because it’s making them very rich.

      • And just think, progressive policies like that are what forced a lot of the jobs overseas because they resulted in outcomes from too costly to outright illegal to manufacture certain items here, and as government has grown, so much consumer production has moved offshore (America is still #1 or 2 for industrial goods production,) that we have seriously compromised ourselves if a major problem happens.

        Much of what you have posted immediately above is true. But, remember, it was your cohorts that caused a very large part of it.

      • The liberal wants over-regulation (in the name of safety) of every industry in the USA, but has no problem buying products produced in countries with virtually no regulation of the health or safety of it’s workers or citizens.

      • What’s going on in China is the result of COMMUNISM! Those “leaders” who don’t give a crap about the “workers.” And that’s where our dear leader wants us to go. After we get regulated to death, we can all be equally poor, and then we can work for the government. Then they won’t care about any clean air, water, or anything else.

      • Well, go to China and clean that place up! It’s not as bad here as you folks make out. But then again, folks like you won’t be happy until you’ve done so much damage that we are a 3rd world nation and you’ve handed everything to China and Mexico. There are things in life I would never do, like allow a liberal into my life raft with a sharp object.

      • Why is your avatar Queen Victoria, the monarch who made Great Britain’s empire on the backs of the poor? It was the England of Dickens, a dark, dirty, poverty stricken world of unimaginable cruelty, want, and stark neglect.
        No doubt she had her qualities but a champion of the people really was not one of them.

    • Excessive rules and laws that are basically stupid don’t help us as a country. The EPA started as a useful agency but its job has been done for sometime. I suggest that you pay attention to the massive overreach the EPA engages in. Pittsburgh air came out WAY TOO CLEAN! What did your fearless leaders do at the EPA? They moved the sensors over to the worst areas possible anywhere here.

    • abinco, you should take a visit to Seoul, Korea for a wake up call. You can’t even see across the street because of pollution!

    • Really, are that stupid??
      Yes, I guess you are!
      Here is and idea, let us just spend all the money in the world on a few of the liberal progressive left’s pet projects. Don’t worry about what it does to everyone trying to live a decent life, don’t be concerned at all. I am certain it will only affect those you could care less about!

    • The EPA was created for good reasons however, it has become an over reaching tool of corrupt government bureaucrats and politicians. I’d have nothing against the NSA or the IRS either except for their willingness to be a tool of people like Obama.
      Telling people to move to China because they want a more honest, efficient, and accountable government is what a tool and a fool suggests who simply likes the sound of his own bloviating.

  2. Most econuts live in big cities and think the rest of the country is the same rat infested filthy place they live in. They have taxpayer subsidized public transportation and can not understand why anyone needs a car. Those in California are simply nuts regardless.

        • Not just the gun laws, but all the liberal crap laws that have been passed or even proposed in Colorado! Get rid of movie stars and you get your state back!

          • I agree. Let’s send this Hollywood stars and libtards on an island, where they will kill each other out of jealousy.

          • there has to be a deserted island with nothing growing somewhere to hurry the process.

          • Sure ! Why not we do that ! And take pictures of them as grim mementos, before they expired. I would love that.

          • Oh Definitely ! Show them some gruesome pictures that will them think twice, or they’ll be brought to a secret location where someone will be hungry for their screams !

          • there’s not too many places in Wy that look like Jackson,we might be safe for a while,but colo has lots of mountains so they’re hurting.

      • Hey…not all Californians are nuts. I would leave this state in a heart beat if I didn’t have the responsibilities I have here. I have not voted for any of the policies that have been instituted here. If you were to break California down county by county, it primarily cotes conservative, pro-business and smaller government, but it is the state government, the major population centers and low information voters that have done this to California. I am a GOD fearing Bible loving, gun shooting conservative, that just happens to be residing in “Sodom and Gomorrah”. There are a lot of people in California that believe as I do. Those who are trapped due to certain circumstances who can’t leave, and those that can and have left the state. So please don’t lump us all in as the “NUTS” Please.

          • When you’re elderly you don’t want to leave your kids and grandkids. Otherwise I’d be gone.

          • Dear Jean, “Anybody can” and “don’t want” aren’t the same thing. “DtET”‘s thinking is correct. But sometimes ones ‘wants’ supersedes ones ‘cans’.

          • NO matter what it is still just a decision to live for yourself or others? apparently they are not willing to leave either ? The only person who can change any of it is you. Joni Mitchell said a long time ago “It all comes down to you” and that part has not and will not change. But your thinking can change ?

            I was born in Kawleefornya in Weed of all places at the base of Mt Shasta and grew up in LA area . I left in the early 70s and would never go back for any reason? Why ? There is no reason and yes, I still have family there. But that is their choice as well. I write about it at my site so you might check it out, pretty interesting stuff actually. Besides I suspect I am older than you are and probably much more fit and healthy ! Good on Ya ,and its all for free !

          • That is simply not true. While I can and have, I know those who are in situations as Guinnesman describes.

          • I agree there are some times extenuating circumstances. But when all is said and done it is till just a decision but perhaps it requires a longer term plan to achieve in some cases ? In a way I am in a place I need to leave as well and I do have a plan to make that happen. So it all comes and goes just as Joni said a long while ago. Ultimately everything in your life always comes down to you and your decisions regarding your surroundings and daily life. Certainly you health, fitness and well being.

            The problem with Kawleefornya now is not just that it is ruined with too many people , but the politics are far too whacked and regressive . Like having an extra hundred pounds to carry around and feed ? And what wil happen on the day when the illegal aliens and others cannot get those freebies ? do you suppose they will play nice ? Most people simply have not fully wrapped their heads around the real underlying problems and negatives of Kawleefornya. In all honesty you could not pay me to live there again for many reasons.

          • Eastern Oregon. I moved to Eugene many years ago to go to school and never looked back . Although back then Eugene was a great place, it too became infested with liberal zealots and control freaks ? So I moved to a much lesser populated area in a very conservative thinking genre. I will be moving one ,more time to an even lesser populated area soon. Check out my site as I write about all of it in a sort of condensed life story and many topics of importance of today from first hand experience. Some interesting and fascinating stuff to be sure and a lot about health and fitness !

          • Love your spelling…”Kawleefornya” wish I came up with it…I also like Californication…but that it a title of a show.

          • Thank you…some things are out of our control…and when the time is right, those things can change.

          • Being divorced with a small child that I can not take out of state is my responsibility…Once she is old enough to decide where she wants to be and who with, then I will make my move. But you are right, it is a choice, but not at this moment.

        • You have my condolences! But to all of the rest that live in Californacation, please stay there with you socialist agenda.

          • You voted for Obama, not me. I’ve been all over the world and like California the best. You can keep your hillbilly ghost towns – I love it here in CA.

          • You assume that I voted for Obamination? You sound like a typical Obama teat sucker!

          • The republican party needs to take responsibility for BO being in office because they gave us a loser in John McCain. Had they run Ron Paul like they should have then our country would be on the mend. When the only honest candidate running can’t be elected in this country we are doomed with the sociopaths through out our political system of corruption. I am a teat sucker – but only on my own race of select females.

          • And in New York where the mayor came out and said “Conservatives need to leave because their ideology does not belong in New York.”

        • This is the result of “Progressives” creating a “democracy”, or rather “mobocracy” out of the Republic that was originally created by the Founders of the country. A Republic has a government that prevents major population areas from overrunning lesser population systems.

        • I am in your boat. Most of California is Rural with people who think and feel as we do, but the population centers LOVE their gimmes and freebies and instant solutions to problems they live with but affect the entire state.

          • It was said that once the people know that they can vote from the coffers of the state that which they feel they deserve, then we no longer are a republic, but a theocracy. You have the Losers voting the Looters who steal from the Producers.

        • LOL – I agree with what you stated about California, but I love it here and find no where I like better. Sure, some stupid laws, but all states have some stupid laws. It’s the corrupt politicians that do the wrong thing for us for their special interests. One more thing – what is “God fearing”? Why be afraid of God? Is he going to do something bad to you? Ridiculous!

          • I love the weather, the vistas, the beauty of the state. But not the state government. on the God Fearing issue…I do not want to enter a religious debate…just sticking to the issue of California.

        • Same here in MA – we have a vocal group of nutbags all around the city of Boston that vote these progressive dipshits into office year, after year, after miserable year. Our taxes continually climb EVERY year, the roads are a potholed mess (unless you live near Boston), and every single town in the state is flat broke. Believe it or not, there’s alot of good Conservatives in MA … and even in Cali – been there & met them – but we are hopelessly outnumbered by morons. What votes we do cast, are erased by corruption. If I could leave, I would, but we must stand and FIGHT!

        • Drive through the winded streets of Bel Air or Beverly Hills in the morning. While farms are starving for water, little streams are rushing down those streets caused by sprinkler systems overwatering the plans and laws of the lavish residences hidden behind 20 ft. tall hedges. While my little lawn is drying out because we can’t afford the water bill anymore, the goofballs in Sacramento are planning to build a bullet train from LA to Sacramento and SF. That’s some priorities. We have enough oil and gas in this state, how about focusing on building water desalination plants. We could become the world leader in this technology and export to other countries as well.

          • I hear ya…it’s that type of hypocrite that keeps voting in these idiotic legislatures that ruins everything for everyone else but them. Our state government does not know how to prepare for these droughts that happen EVERY 7 to 8 years. They release water form the reservoirs in anticipation of rain and then when it does not come, they have no reserve and blame Global Climate Change over their inability to plan. We can’t water our lawn, wash our cars and then get told we are going to have water rates increased, while the Hollywood elite et al are maintaining their lavish life styles. Now they want us to divert water from the northern part of the state to care for their freaking exclusive golf courses…Stupidity at it’s finest.

          • The super wealthy will always piss away what others need. Every state has wealthy people and I applaud them for making their money unless it was at the expense of other people, like JP Morgan, JD Rockafella, etc. Let your lawn die and replace it with stones. Lawns are a waste of water. I agree that a bullet train that can’t pay for itself is stupid and building a new massive aquaduct to bring water from North to South is what should be in the works. Desalination plants are great except for the high cost to operate.

          • I agree it is a waste of water, but it keeps the air a little bit cooler around the house here in Sothern Cal and I enjoy to waste some time every two weeks to mow the lawn. Your are right with the aqueduct and the high cost of desalination. But try to do it, we might bring the cost down, we might discover a different way. We have more oil here than the Saudis, lets use it !

          • I’m in socal also. Someone was working on a system that would condense the moisture at the beach and only the power to pump sea water up for cooling was needed. I don’t know what happened to it. A water desalination plan running on some sort of solar would be good if it ever got developed. I’m using a kit that recovers about 12 gallons a day that goes down the drain from my Reverse Osmosis system. I use that clean filtered water, which is free, to water my fruit trees, etc. check it out on amazon.

          • The politicians (self interest groups) won’t build anything that just helps us normal people. They want to help things that help themselves and their friends. They would rather put money into welfare people than construction workers or engineers. THey want the votes of the nonproducers..

          • True! and the serious implications are that our country grew and prospered because people could work hard and create and get compensated for it. Now, you get all types of benefits for sitting on your ass in a 365 day vacation – that is counter productive. All the political clowns are selling out our country that millions have died to preserve – it is just disgusting!

    • Making a blanket statement that everyone in California are nuts is like me stating that everyone that has a stupid looking avatar is a nut. Truth is – some are and some are not. Sorry, maybe that avatar is actually your real picture.

    • at leasthe man is honest
      not like the crook that we are straddled with today
      2 faced freaking LIAR

      • Take one for a ride, or better yet try to rent one for a day, then take a new Mustang or Camaro out for a ride also, as they are all the same price, around 23-25K, make sure the Camaro and Mustang are standard though, like the Fiat, all of them are fine cars, but the two domestics are much safer in crash tests, and I suspect will have better re-sale value also, with the plus of being able to get service easer, and parts will be less expensive. The Fiat will get a few more mpg, but the other will have more room, also the Fiat will be a little better in snow, but with good tires, and the modern traction control systems in all the cars they are all better than their predecessors.

        • I used to have 2011 Mustang, and I loved it. It was GT with manual transmission, around $32,000. Yes, gas mileage sucked, but I didn’t mind, because it was a fun ride. I was talking about Abart as a second car.

    • Our local Chrysler dealer provides a “Lifetime Powertrain Warranty” on every new and used car he sells……except for Fiats

  3. Mr. Minkoff needs to ask Peugot or Renault to make his required number of Fiat electrics! First, they can build all of them for less to save him those $14,000 x some small number that he must sell to qualify for other goodies from the bail-out deal. But, that only eliminates his pain….and he, of course, has to sign off that he will never build another electric powered car!

    Next, Mr. Minkoff needs to be aware that building electric cars is about to see major changes that make it ideal for some large market segments:

    1. By using hydrogen made at home from Sun power that is greater than needed and has been to date mostly sold to the GRID for small considerations is about to end! How? By making hydrogen to store in old low psi propane tanks, using the sun power previouslyl being either lost or given away on the cheap, homeowners will find that wind power works whenever its windy- even when its more windy than GRID folks want to see,so they helped force these generators to stop before they need to do so.

    With a way to stuff the low psi hydrogen into a few delivery vans, the French PO is getting mail into places more than 60 miles away and back in a day’s work. It will combine to make electrics go far enough to not need gasoline or fossil fuel to make the electricity to make the hydrogen to run the hydrogen fuel cell to charge the battery on the fly!

    Get cap n trade soon so gas prices can soar and the above will happen faster sounds nice, but it is a bad idea. Better to show how gas prices can’t get low enough to compete!

  4. VILE LIBERAL SCUM know the environment is perfectly NORMAL. Hitler used environmental silly ass regulations to condition German citizens to outrageous government controls. Like sexually molesting little girls at Airports while allowing Muslims a FREE PASS. Who is the REAL ENEMY here?

        • Thank you. It really is baffling to me how half of the population are ignorant, or just uncaring, of the parallels
          between Obama’s Alinsky-inspired policies and those of Hitler and the Nazi party.

          • Thanks to Mainstream media owned by Communist Party USA parrot the official Communist party line of Political Correctness. Communist Useful Idiots are mind numbed robots that simply do not think for themselves. Fat, lazy, and STUPID more concerned with appearances than substance.

            Totally happy to accept handouts by Santa Claus not caring about the price they will have to pay for it.

  5. One thing is for sure, not all Italians are a part of the “family.” No intelligent person, unless met with the proverbial “choice you can’t refuse” would ever buy a beer can with wheels!

    • Now, now, let’s be fair. That depends on just how much beer is in it. Can we turn these 500e’s into large kegs, perhaps?

  6. “Crony capitalism” is an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp”. If the government is subsidizing favored companies, than by definition that is socialism, not capitalism.

    • Another oxymoron is “Left-Wing Anarchist”. An Anarchist believes in no or minimal government. A “Left-Winger” believes in maximal government. The problem we have today is the “State is Supreme” types are being elected and controlling things.

  7. When then Senator Obama said that he will necessarily have electric prices sky rocket. That was the end of him for me. My electric bill is high enough without him raising it by closing coal plants. Then if you take it further. Why would I want to purchase an electric car and have to plug it in at home with high electric bills. Duh! No reason to purchase an electric car. But no one seems to have put these two thoughts together. Why?

    • Because a large number of his followers can’t think? Along with a lot of people, broadly speaking.

      • Hola Charlie, an earlier post, if I can find it, said 86% of voters have no clue (of course, many are dead or black).

    • For the same reason no one has put together the whole agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood/Obama regime and its program to destroy the US spiritually, morally and economically. No President has fulfilled his campaign promises to change our country and its traditions more thoroughly than Barack Hussein Obama. Find me one thing the “Eugenoprogressives” – figure that one out – are doing that is actually improving this Representative Constitutional Republic – one thing!

    • I think the plan is wind and solar power along with hydro electric. Then charging a car at home does not add pollution. I don’t like crap forced on me and the global warming scam and global energy tax is crap. It is really about the special interests of opposing parties trying to weaken the other side. If you can cut the profits of big oil and gun companies then the repubs have less donations to get elected with. We are just the pawns.

  8. We are governed by idiots and fools, from Obama on down. These useless jerks are as stupid as a box of rocks when it comes to the real world. Vote people. Get out there and vote this trash out of office once and for all. If we don’t, it’s all over.

  9. “carbon emission foot-binding” what an eloquent way to put that! Kudo’s to the Fiat CEO for laying out the truth!!

  10. Crony capitalism results in skewed markets and bad policy eventually. Free markets on the other hand, would allow the consumers to decide which type cars to purchase. Excessive regulations which enforce crony capitalism, favored industry or policies, only drive business out of business, or they move to another state or country.

    California is losing business and has for years now. Will any of the Democrats out there actually realize why?

    • Silicon Valley is booming right now. Tech is the biggest component of the S&P 500. And most of it is in California. Thank goodness for big government post-secondary education spending and defense programs!

      • Yeah, say that when all of those people are the only ones left to pay those high taxes for the illegals to leech off you.

      • Washington, D.C. is awash in money as well. Huge amounts of cash from government building and paying salaries for greater than comparable ones in private business. Even non-political economists point to the inevitable consequences of huge government deficits and spending. I am glad for those with jobs in the tech industry since “shovel ready” jobs never were a reality.

  11. I watch videos all the time of people who are building or converting cars and cycles to electric for pennies on the dollar of what Big Auto builds and sells them for. Hell, I KNOW a guy who drives his converted tractor ALL DAY on the batteries he charges with a 3 hp. engine and an old alternator that burns 1 1/2 gals. of gas. Don’t tell me the large manufacturers can’t do the same. All that extra profit goes to lobbyists and ‘good ol’ boys’ to get legislation passed on regulations so they have an EXCUSE for the extra profit. Just one, big, government regulated cluster foxtrot.

    • There is no good reason why they can’t churn out profitable electric cars for under $15,000. They have less moving parts, lower maintenance and are easier to build.

  12. I saw a picture of one that had hit a deer and it was over half demolished. The caption said the deer got up, shook its head, and walked away! I sure would not want to be in one when it hit anything any larger than a pop can, God forbid, another vehicle.

  13. I agree with all the comments below – especially one who has to survive in “eugenoprogressive” California.

    My 2008 Saturn was very tired, so I went looking for something that would deliver better mileage – 17.3 mpg overall average – a little heavy footed for a senior citizen

    I dropped by my local Ford dealer and saw a 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid with 13,000 miles on It. It had everything I ever wanted on a car – except 0-60 in 4 seconds. I’d never buy an electric car for the same reasons the CEO gave. But, as an engineer, a hybrid makes sense as it is self contained and uses the best of the energy available, including recharging the battery by braking. I called a friend who had a 2006t Hybrid Ford Explorer. They had no trouble with it, so my mind was made up.

    I don;t know if Ford is making money on it, but its solider than a Prius and delivers better mileage. Heated leather seas, premium Sony Sound System, Microsoft SYNC system, sun roof, power everything and about average 38 mpg the way I drive. My wife and I love the car – in town and one the highway.

    Of course, my son’s ’78 VW Jetta diesel delivered close to 50 mpg. Governments can challenge, but when they make unreal demands, they screw up the whole economic system and the ingenuity of the people who can actually deliver.

    • Thanks for the brief C-Max review. My dad has been toying with one. I might have him go take a look at it.

      • I have a Chevy VOLT, 97 % on Electricity, 3.38 cents a mile vs 15-20 cents a mile on gas. Teslas are $50,000 to $120,000 and are on back order, big waiting list. I love the heated seats, the very quiet acceleration, dynamic breaking makes the break pads last forever and recharges the battery on hills. Tesla is scheduled tohave a 250 mile sub $35000 car this year.

        • If either Chevrolet or Tesla start offering a station wagon or C-Max type…wagon-y thing at the $25-27k price range, we’ll look at them.

    • Yes, good luck and thanks for buying domestic! Your new Ford C-Max Hybrid is a nice car! If we all were to buy from a domestic manf. our Country would not be in such dire straights, and there would be no need of government buy-outs! bail-outs or whatever you want to call them, help is what is really is. Back in the day 80-90’s the domestic cars were not as good as imports were, but today? all new cars are great! from any Country, (except maybe China), so why not supports the home team? even if some of their cars are made in other Countries the MONEY stays here! However I am not so closed minded to now think Chrysler is now a foreign company, they are still a domestic company with foreign interests and now influence, all of which is good for you the consumer!

      • Even if everyone bought American, our government would come up with another way to screw things up.

  14. and who picks up the cash on the back end in the form of taxing electricity? It’s ALL a bug scam to fleece the taxpayers in order to fuel the wasteful government.

  15. Definitely an eye-opener of an article.

    Personally, I’d never buy an all-electric car for my regular driving anyway, I’d be too concerned about running out of charge at a very inopportune time.

    Now, if the put solar panels in the roof, and set it up so it would at least have a “limp-home” mode, well, I might be willing to look into int, until then, I’ll stick to gas or a hybrid of some kind.

    • Even if they covered the entire car with solar panels, you couldn’t generate enough energy to “limp home”. You’d have to park it for a few hours at least to let the panels charge the battery enough to get you anywhere.

    • Solar panels would work if in orbit around the SUN, on earth the power even at noon on a sunny day over 2 square meters is 280-320W, a typical EV charger is 3.2KW to 20KW. You would have to wait a few weeks for a charge. Do the Math.

  16. Portland Oregon contains 603,106 ( 2012 ). 80% of those are calipoonians that have infected Oregon with nut job legislation. They ride bikes because the roads in the town are unfit for cars and trucks ( autos ). THEY want the rest of Oregon to be just like them…… OK So I live in John Day, and I work in the woods just east of Prairie City and must pack a chain saw, gas, oil, tools, an axe, a fire extinguisher, a spade shovel, a pickaxe, lunch and water for the day, a hard hat, gloves, extra socks, extra gloves, ETC…….., and I am suposed to get all that stuff 55 miles and back on 22 miles of gravel mountain roads SAFELY on a bicycle.

    • You have missed the latest posting of regulations, I believe. Your bicycle is displacing the endangered Oregon Mountain Gravel. You may no longer use it to travel to work or to transport tools of any sort. Turn it in at the local citizen’s post office in Portland, Comrade.

    • Sounds like Mexican radical who want the USA to be governed just like Mexico – starting with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas which the Spanish stole from the Indians and the Mexicans stole from the Spanish, following up in the 1930’s with the terrorist reign of Portofino Calles.(Netflix the great movie “For Greater Glory” to get a taste of what the “progressives” have in mind for USA.)
      Isn’t there a US Marine hero rotting in a Mexican prison while the Obama Administration worries about the name of the Washington Redskins?.
      .. Is it the Pacific breezes that waft in insanity?

  17. Kalifornia – the breading ground for nut jobs, save the planet “Climate Whatever” scam.

  18. Add the death of many vets and the VA to this list –

    To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature:
    It is now Official that the majority of you are CORRUPT politicians:

    a. The U.S. Postal Service established – 1775 – You had 234 Years to get it right and it is broke.
    b. VA established – 1930 – 84 years of lies and betrayal to Veterans… A COMPLETE Failure !!
    c. Social Security established – 1935 – You had 74 Years to get it right and it is broke.
    d. Fannie Mae established – 1938 – You had 71 Years to get it right and it is broke.
    e. War on Poverty started – 1964 – You had 45 Years to get it right – FAIL!
    f. Medicare/Medicaid established – 1965 – You had 44 Years to get them right and they’re broke.
    g. Freddie Mac established – 1970 – You had 39 Years to get it right and it is broke.
    h. Amtrak established – 1970 – You had 39 Years to get it right and it is broke.
    i. The Department of Energy created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

    – – It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 Billion a
    year and we Import more oil than ever before ! – You’ve had 32 Years
    to get it right and it is an ABYSMAL failure.

    $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” –
    … and they only want more.

    $3 Billion a year is Stolen and given to the Federal Reserve, for the debt Congress spends.
    … {interest payments}

    You have FAILED in EVERY “government service” you have shoved down our throats, while Overspending our tax dollars….

    AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM?? Just look at the Vet Admin

    • Socialism never works and has failed every time it has been done. The first socialist experiment in this country was the Mayflower Compact and it was a dismal failure. They switched to a classic capitalist system. Socialism expects a person to give up their self-interest for ever which of course a person won’t do. Socialism also destroys wealth by preventing its creation. All one has to do is to look at what happened to Argentina in the 1900s and what is happening to Venezuela today.

  19. My last bi – monthly electric bill, in mid April, I paid US$0.36 a kWh.
    Fortunately, my 13 y/o (in early June) Subaru has only 38,597 mi on the odo.
    Why would anyone buy one of these electric POS(s) ?? Tax breaks?? Or simply airhead Californians???

  20. Our present day POS PRESIDENT is the most efficient one we have ever had! His leadership has been exactly what he promised in 2008, he promised to FUNDAMENTALY change this country from a successful powerhouse to the sorry excuse it is today. I call that “keeping a promise”, politicians don’t usually do that.

  21. Refreshing is about all I can say about this comment. The only thing the progressives can run is their mouths.

    • And they’re not even good with that since everything that comes out of their mouths is crap, but not even the good kind you can use for fertilizer!

  22. Obama didn’t choose him to run Chrysler… Marchionne was running FIAT, and they were the only real bidder for Chrysler who was willing to deal with the strings attached. He took Chrysler off the US government’s hands for basically zero, but insisted on gaining full control in the end. BTW, Obama also insisted that -in addition to producing electric cars nobody wants- Chrysler should stop producing ‘gas guzzlers’ like the Grand Cherokee, Chrysler 300, and Dodge Viper. This Marchionne sternly refused, and today those larger vehicles are the only reason Chrysler is so profitable. Yes, Marchionne is brilliant… Obama, not so much.

  23. Just like ethanol, the only ones who come out on top is he farmers? those of course that have no animals to feed. Where as the only ones who come out on top in electric cars? are maybe their owners, and the electric companies generating your electricity.

  24. If the federal government stuck to operating according to the Constitution they wouldn’t be dictating to private companies what products they must produce. Such a shame we can’t be treated to the sight of Obama attempting to dictate to Walter P. Chrysler and the Dodge Brothers (John and Horace) … neither took crap from anyone!

    “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

    President Calvin Coolidge

    • Obama’s “dream” for America is one he took from his father. That is, the complete destruction of European culture and society. It is Obama’s single accomplishment.

  25. What happens when the battery’s in these little rolling death
    traps need to be replaced. As battery’s do not last for ever
    they have a life expectancy of maximum of 5 years if You are
    lucky the old battery’s have to be replaced what will they do
    with the old ones. Lithium Polymer battery’s have a propensity
    of catching fire and they are using them in these E-cars.

  26. Funny how I have family that visits here every now and then from Brazil or Portugal and they love coming here and getting into our BIG cars. It’s what makes America an astonishing place to live. People everywhere else drive these little sardine cans all the time. I remember going to visit family in Brazil and we took taxi from the airport and their SUV’s were these tiny cars. We needed a convoy of family to pick us up as we had a family of six plus all the luggage.

    Why do liberals want us all to drive the Matchbox cars and they, of course are always exempt. Exempt from Obamacare, little houses, little cars, etc…

  27. The zero emission standard for vehicles is a FARCE! Electric power plants emit all kinds of noxious gasses and solids. As the country increases it’s reliance on EPVs, those emissions increase. Just because they aren’t coming out the EPV’s tail pipe doesn’t mean they don’t exist or that they aren’t related to transportation. The Obama EPA gestapo is trying to pull the blinders over the eyes of the electorate to advance an Obama agenda that will cripple industry in the USA! Someone needs to stop them before it’s too late! Who knows, maybe it is already too late?

    • Ah – but we have wind and solar! BTW, under the best of circumstances these could never be more than 20% of the grid.

      • Solar costs more than it generates and it is short lived. Requires frequent maintenance to maintain its efficiency. Wind is better than solar BUT – there are limited locations where it is viable, pollutes the beauty of the landscape, makes lots of LF noise and kills birds indiscriminately. Give me coal or nuclear any day!

        • How about converting to Thorium Reactors, no heavy nucleotides, Safe, auto shutdown and very scalable.

          Thorium is 6X more abundant than Uranium, Monzanite is 12% thorium. It was abandoned in the 1950’s because this reaction did not generate bomb making materials. The Indians,Chinese, Swedish and Norwegians and Americans have test reactors.

          • My sister used to eat thorium when we were kids (it was in the dirt). Safe and abundant. The Navy operated a Thorium breeder reactor at Shippingport, PA for several years – proved the breeding concept. I visited Shippingport while the Thorium breeder core was in operation – safe as they come! I’m all for it.

          • The PBMR (Pebble Bed Modular Reactor) is a nice concept but unproven. The Thorium reactor cycle is proven and works. LWRs are more reliable and stable than reactors that use metal coolants, graphite moderators and the like. “We Almost Lost Detroit” was written about a liquid metal cooled reactor. Windscale in Britain & Chernobyl in Ukraine were graphite moderated reactors that burned and made a HUGE mess! Note that reactors that use graphite or heavy water moderator with on-line refueling are generally better for making bomb material than producing large quantities of power (CANDUs may be an exception, but probably not). Nuclear power reactors should NOT be built on or near earthquake faults (a la Diablo Canyon & Fukushima) or volcanoes. Just my opinion.

          • We are going to need liquid cooled reactors to get rid of the plutonium in our existing spent fuel if we reprocess. I don’t have anything against the Thorium cycle but I do have something against leaving the long-lived transuranics laying around. Containing cesium and strontium for 500 years is bad enough.

          • Both Sr-90 and Cs-137 have half lives on the order of 30 years. Ten half lives is generally considered sufficient to eliminate the threat – that’s 300 years not 500. The key to minimizing the threat from fission products is to recycle the spent fuel from water-cooled reactors. When the spent fuel is removed from a reactor, about 97% of the material is reusable, you just have to remove the neutron poisons that accumulate from the fission process (like Plutonium-240). If you recycle the spent fuel, you significantly decrease the quantity of radioactive nuclides that must be disposed of AND the longer-lived stuff is burnt up in the reactor core, eliminating the need to dispose of it – it has value as fuel!!! The French & Japanese civilian nuclear programs have been safely & successfully recycling spent fuel for a long time. The US Navy invented the processes for its nuclear reactor fleet! But President Jimmy Carter (the second most incompetent President in US history) made it illegal to reprocess spent commercial fuel, thus ruining the nuclear fuel cycle in the USA. We have highly safe handling techniques for all these materials. We’re just not allowed to use them! It’s called shooting yourself in the foot. Carter was good at it but Obama is a genius in this arena!

          • Sure. But I think the environmentalists have some reasonable issues with the Plutonium cycle. It’s a heavy metal and bioaccumulates. I don’t think there’s a problem with 400 reactors around the world running for a couple hundred years, but if we have thousands or tens of thousands running for 1000 or 2000 years, that’s a serious issue. There will be more accidents, and if civilization ever shuts down for a hundred years (or even possibly for a few days as seen at Fukushima), Pu will leak out into the environment where it will act like a really really ugly version of Lead or DDT with a 20,000 year half-life.
            We have to think about what is sustainable here. I am OK with a system that produces fission-products with 30 year half-lives that can occasionally leak out. I am less OK with a system that leaves several decades of spent fuel with 3% Pu-239/97% non-fissile Pu laying around.
            So I’m much more comfortable with a fuel cycle that doesn’t involve Plutonium as reactor fuel. We have to take the 1% Pu-239 (as well as the Americium and other trans-uranic heavy metals) out of our spent fuel, and then we have to engineer Yucca Mountain to contain the fission products for just 300, 600, or 900 years (I have seen different numbers between ten and fifteen half-lives cited. I’m not a nuclear engineer, but I’m still not sure I feel comfortable with 1/1000th of a dose of radiation from spent fuel- I’m a lot more comfortable with 1 1 millionth or 1 1 billionth of a dose)

          • Yucca Mtn not a good spot. Vulcanism, earthquake faults running through the mountain – not good. The DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is a much better concept. Buried 10,000 feet below ground and encapsulated in salt that has encapsulated water from the Permian Sea for over 200 million years, that’s my idea of a safe repository!

          • Don’t disagree with you, but we need a better solution than having spent fuel sitting alongside the shorelines of the Great Lakes, along the Hudson River, and on top of earthquake fault lines. Burying the fission products in the Nevada Test Range (where we have lots of other radioactive stuff in the ground) may not be the best option, but it is a better option than leaving it at around ~70 sites around the country, many in areas that could experience serious harm if there were a release.

  28. And what is the eventual cost to dispose of the depleted batteries in these “wundercars”? And what is the replacement costs of those batteries? Could that be the reason dealers recommend leasing them for 36 months?

    • IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD, LEAD-ACID BATTERIES HAVE BEEN RECYCLED FOR THE LAST 50+ YEARS…

      (Sorry, I had to shout)

      • Lol – millions a day even – but now thanks to the Obumbler administration the US no longer has lead smelting factories (he shut them all down) – just one more thing we are FORCED to buy from China now

      • Ya, a single car battery. Wait until a complete battery system of a Prius, Volt, etc. are in need of disposal. My thinks there will be a “special” charge to the owner to dispose of them. Can they be “recycled” like auto tires that are disposed of at $2/tire? We’ll see, won’t we.

        • Actually the lithium in the priuses and hybrids are EXTREMELY valuable. Disposal will require work, yes, but it’s a lot cheaper than mining more lithium.

  29. Good read and this guys honesty is a bit refreshing. Bet he stood out like a turd in the punch bowl with all the auto inbreds? Interestijng ly htis article point s out that all the auto makers are simply gov entities ? Another of Obamas wonderful achievements , Hey ?

  30. The simple fact is the “Progressives” have been working overtime to undermine the economy. People need to look at the Out-of-Work number. The unemployment number can be 0% while the Out-of-Work number can that plus. In the Great Depression the unemployment number was the same the out-of-work number. Remember, the unemployment number only measures the number of people who are out of work that qualify for unemployment insurance. It does not reflect how many people are out of work who want to work.

  31. WOW! This article wasn’t what I thought it’d be. however just further proof that Obama/government/liberals/progressives have that special “touch” ( NOT the Midas touch, but that stinky, smelly touch which turns everything into crap).

  32. There is no good reason why they can’t churn out profitable electric cars for under $15,000. They have less moving parts, hardly any parts requiring lubrication, and are easier to build. If they would just STOP changing the entire designs of cars every other year this would save them billions.

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