Dusty Balz, SASS#46599 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Chevy Volt Pays For Itself.....In Just 27 years! Savings come slowly for hybrid, electric car owners If you're thinking about buying a fuel-efficient hybrid, electric or otherwise eco-friendly vehicle as a way to save money over time, do your homework — or be prepared to wait. Buyers who choose Nissan's all-electric Leaf ($28,421) over its approximate gas-powered equivalent, Nissan's Versa ($18,640), will likely wait nearly 9 years until they break even, according to a new report by The New York Times that examines the cost of fuel efficiency. For drivers of the Chevrolet Volt ($31,767), the wait is even longer— 26.6 years. A few vehicles begin paying off relatively soon after leaving the dealership. Two hybrids— Toyota's Prius ($23,537) and Lincoln's MKZ ($33,887)— as well as Volkswagen's diesel-powered Jetta TDI ($25,242) all take less than two years before they start saving their owners money. Check out this chart by the Times that breaks down the savings delay for many popular fuel-efficient models. The high price tag of many fuel-efficient vehicles — including the Nissan Leaf, which will soon be made in Smyrna, Tenn. — is one reason consumers have yet to embrace them with open arms. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville...or-hybrid.html __________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perro Del Diablo Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 But we are saving the planet. Huh!! Had my truck 12 years thought I was getting my moneys worth but powers to be tells me otherwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Lemme git my checkbook out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Hanger #3720LR Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 This is a big government crock! ----- Yes, the customer pays about $32,000 for one of these things. But the tax payer has covered the rest of the cost per Chevy Volt. Another $218,000 per car on the road. ----- The Volt Re-Evaluated: $250,000 Per Car ---- Behold the magic of government subsidies. by John Hayward 12/22/2011 I’ve long been fascinated by the sad tale of the Chevy Volt, a heavily subsidized electric car nobody wants. It’s one of the purest, most perfect examples of government attempting to artificially create a marketplace, and failing miserably. At the time of the Volt’s launch, when rebates brought the consumer price down to $33,500 (which is still horribly high for such a tiny, unappealing car, and doesn’t factor in the enormous maintenance costs of the electrical system) I decided to total up all the subsidies pumped into the vehicle’s creation, divide them by projected sales, and came up with a per-unit real cost of $81,000. Very few Volt buyers had any awareness of the vehicle’s true cost, because other people paid the difference between the $33,500 they were plunking down and the $81,000 true cost. That’s an appalling corruption of the vital financial information stream. Cost is data. Nobody knows what anything really costs anymore, due to the vast machinery of subsidies and penalties thumping and groaning away just out of our view, but the Volt was an especially egregious example. A year and a half later, after a few Volts burst into flames, James Hohman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy did an exhaustive evaluation of the Volt’s current true cost. He included state and federal assistance spread over “18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants, and tax credits.” This was measured against the roughly 6,000 Volts sold to date. The result of Hohman’s calculations, as reported by Michigan Capitol Confidential, is that “each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it.” That’s a worst-case scenario, as some of the companies involved in producing Volt components might not meet the targets necessary to receive the subsidies. On the other hand, Hohman did not include the massive taxpayer bailout that made it possible for Government Motors to exist and push out those unloved little electric firecrackers, or the incentives paid to companies that lost bids to provide Volt batteries. The Michigan Capitol Confidential article garnered a laughably weak response from GM: Greg Martin, director of Policy and Washington Communications for GM, wrote in an email, "While much less than the hundreds of billions of dollars that Japanese and Korean auto and battery manufacturers have received over the years, the investments provided by several different Administrations and Congresses to jump-start the country's fledgling battery technology and domestic electric vehicle industries (not just specifically for the Volt as Ford's offering will also use LG Chem batteries and Fisker will use the A123 system for example) matches the same foresight and innovation leadership that other countries are exhibiting and which America has historically taken pride in." Martin added that the Mackinac Center's math was "simple and selective." However, he offered no data or specifics to support his assertion. Once again, compulsive force is used to “transform” the economy - “jump starting the country’s fledgling battery technology and domestic electric vehicle industries” as Martin put it – and the result is an unmitigated disaster. The only way to finish the job and force customers to buy Volts, as General Motors CEO Dan Akerson openly speculated last year, would be to artificially jack up the price of gasoline until “green” cars become reasonable alternatives. Akerson had an extra $1 per gallon of extra federal gas taxes in mind at the time, although I’m not sure that would be enough anymore. Maybe $2 or $3 per gallon would do it. That would also give the government more cash to spend on its wise Solyndra-style industrial policies. Well, at least the $3 billion in taxpayer subsidies we’ve been forced to pump into the Volt are putting sustainable cars in the hands of the poor, right? Er… not really, no. Here’s what Akerson said about Volt buyers in an interview he gave last week: Q: Are you moving past the early technology adopters on the Volt at this point, or has any data surprised you on who is actually buying this vehicle? A: The average purchaser of a Volt is earning $170,000 a year. About a third of the customers haven't been in a Chevy store in more than five years and half have never been in there. They aren't just early adopters. Some of them - I think roughly half - are either Prius or BMW owners. So one, you could say Prius owners were probably early adopters in the olden days, but that's kind of passed through. But BMW people want styling, good design, and an innovative powertrain, or power source, and I think Volt is a game changer. So all that money pulled out of your middle-class wallet has been subsidizing the boutique car purchases of people who make $170,000 a year, and might otherwise be looking at a BMW! Wonderful! Behold the magic of government subsidies. ------ Then there's the gas mileage lie. What about gas mileage? The Environmental Protection Agency has not yet announced its plan for assigning mpg-equivalent ratings to plug-in vehicles. GM rashly came out last year and said the Volt would have a 230 mpg equivalent based on early EPA methodology -- but then GM had to recant. Popular Mechanics, in a test drive, calculated that the mileage, including the distance traveling on battery power, was 37.5 mpg in the city, 38 mpg in highway driving. That is significantly lower than the rating for a regular hybrid Prius of 51 mpg in city driving, 48 highway. Of course, a commuter who drove a Volt less than 25 miles a day and recharged at night wouldn't buy any gas at all. And overall emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases would depend on how the electric power was generated. The rest of the article can be read here. edited to fix the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Shapiro Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 In addition to what Cliff Hanger posted, that article doesn't take into account the replacement cost of the batteries after 7 or so years. Nor the large amount of toxic waste generated in the making and disposal of those same batteries. Gasoline and diesel are, in all likelyhood, more "green". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Don't matter. World's coming to an end on December 21, 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Don't matter. World's coming to an end on December 21, 2012. C'mon Birdgun a true Baptist would not believe that story! Rye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 C'mon Birdgun a true Baptist would not believe that story! Rye Rye, ask me again on December 22nd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Dan Dawkins Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 United Nations and George Soros at work my friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Rye, ask me again on December 22nd. and I'll wish ya a very merry Christmas too! Rye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Woodrow Cahill, SASS # 54363 Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 And while one government department is pushing electric vehicles, another (EPA) is closing down coal-fired power plants. Where do they expect to get the electrons to charge up these go-karts? A governement in disarray, working at cross purposes. Myself, I'd like Ford to start importing or building here their line of diesels like they sell in Europe. An Escape that gets 50 MPG, or a Fusion that gets 65 MPG would be ideal. Diesel cars can also run on vegetable oil, and that's easier to make than ethanol. And every McDonalds or Burger King tosses millions of gallons of it a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 And while one government department is pushing electric vehicles, another (EPA) is closing down coal-fired power plants. Where do they expect to get the electrons to charge up these go-karts? A governement in disarray, working at cross purposes. Myself, I'd like Ford to start importing or building here their line of diesels like they sell in Europe. An Escape that gets 50 MPG, or a Fusion that gets 65 MPG would be ideal. Diesel cars can also run on vegetable oil, and that's easier to make than ethanol. And every McDonalds or Burger King tosses millions of gallons of it a year. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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