Pirate's Cove

Anyone think that something like this will freak out the middle and working class folks being forced to get EVs?

Bet that Chevy Volt sounded like a good idea at first. pic.twitter.com/q57U0gZowU

— Rob O'Donnell (@odonnell_r) August 25, 2022

A couple things. First, that price is not out of line. It’s kind of in the middle of what the battery packs cost. Second, let’s not forget that the Volt is not an EV, but, a plugin hybrid which has an 8.9 gallon tank. Third, and this is very concerning, they car only has 70K miles. That’s going to cause a lot of consternation in the used market. Who would want to buy, say, an EV coming off lease with 30-36K miles for a hefty price, then look at almost paying for the car again a few years later? And, remember, all those articles about people saving money by going to an EV are talking about keeping the vehicle for 8-10 years. Me, I’ll put on 8-10K a year. Most aren’t me and drive 12-15K a year.

Some Automakers Didn’t Take Climate Change Seriously. California’s New Gasoline Car Ban is Making Them Face Reality

Automakers like GM and Ford were giddy about electric vehicles (EVs) at the Detroit Auto Show back in January 2018, with plans to plow billions of dollars into building zero-emission cars. Fiat Chrysler, on the other hand, signaled they would sit out the transition. “I don’t know of a [business] that is making money selling electric vehicles unless you are selling them at the very, very high end of the spectrum,” Sergio Marchionne, the company’s then-CEO, told attendees at a press conference, according to The Detroit News. Rather than plow money into a rapid electric transition, he said, Fiat Chrysler would remain “technology neutral.”

Marchionne died later that year, and the company—now renamed Stellantis—eventually came around on EVs, rolling out new electrification pledges and concept vehicles. But with California’s move this week to rapidly phase out sales of new gasoline cars in the coming years and ban them by 2035, the business’s prior foot-dragging may have cost them, especially when it comes to meeting near-term targets to sell at least 35% zero-emission vehicles in the state by 2026.

So, essentially, one company was mentioned as being reticent, probably understanding what their customers were looking for and could afford. And, yes, the profit level for these will be a lot higher for the manufacturers and dealers. GM and Ford, especially their dealers, would love to get away from their massive discounts, which often bring the net profit to nothing/small loss (believe it or not, we all often sell cars for a loss. We tried not to discount to more than a $500 “bracket” deal). Selling at a nice profit? Sounds great to me!

American politicians have tried for years to force car companies to make the switch that science demands. Way back in the early 1990s, California attempted to make automakers develop and sell zero-emission vehicles, a mandate that resulted in the launch of the country’s first mass market electric car, GM’s EV-1. But the effort cratered under sustained pushback from the auto industry and the George W. Bush Administration. (snip)

But despite that perceived lack of ambition, California’s new mandate at least puts elected officials in a position of dictating the speed of that electric transition to the industry, rather than the other way around. The state’s gasoline vehicle ban adds a stick to the new economic carrots for EVs passed in the Biden Administration’s recent climate bill—in this case, an up to $20,000 fine for every car sold in violation of the state’s electrification targets. That means not only rewards for companies that took the climate crisis seriously enough to invest early in electric vehicles, but also real repercussions for players like Stellantis that ignored the urgent need for emissions action to squeeze a few more dollars out of their gasoline cars and trucks. And at this stage of the game, with humanity’s chances of keeping the planet’s temperature rise below 1.5°C slipping away, those consequences are long overdue.

This is not really the Socialism module from the Democracy model: this is way to the right in the Authoritarian model, hence, Progressivism is nice fascism. They are doing this for your own good, and controlling the economy, up to and including owning the means of production, with the force of government to make you comply. They will make you buy an EV, and, if you do not want to, well, you can walk, bike, or take the bus, peasant.

Read: What Does It Cost To Replace A Chevy Volt Battery? »