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Every Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up To $250,000
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- Thursday, 22 December 2011 07:40
The average Chevy Volt owner has an income of $170,000, which immediately reduces its marketability. The Volt was supposed to sell 10,000 units in 2011 - it may end up selling 6,000. The reality of liberal central planning has proven once again to be a failure. The Chevy Volt was created based on an extreme liberal ideology and nothing more. It's a failure, but to cover it up, the Obama White House has pumped billions of dollars in incentives to make the vehicle more attractive to potential buyers. A recent study by Makinac Center for Public Policy notes that every Chevy Volt has as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it. Overall, the Volt has $3 billion in incentives that's unknowingly being funded by taxpayers. That's the Chevy Volt in a nutshell.
From Michigan Capital Confidential:
The Volt subsidies flow through multiple companies involved in production. The analysis includes adding up the amount of government subsidies via tax credits and direct funding for not only General Motors, but other companies supplying parts for the vehicle. For example, the Department of Energy awarded a $105.9 million grant to the GM Brownstown plant that assembles the batteries. The company was also awarded approximately $106 million for its Hamtramck assembly plant in state credits to retain jobs. The company that supplies the Volt’s batteries, Compact Power, was awarded up to $100 million in refundable battery credits (combination tax breaks and cash subsidies). These are among many of the subsidies and tax credits for the vehicle.
Running the numbers, of the 6,000 Volts sold, each would have a subsidy between $50,000 to $250,000, depending on which subsidies were realized.
If those manufacturers awarded incentives to produce batteries the Volt may use are included in the analysis, the potential government subsidy per Volt increases to $256,824. For example, A123 Systems has received extensive state and federal support, and bid to be a supplier to the Volt, but the deal instead went to Compact Power. The $256,824 figure includes adding up the subsidies to both companies.
The $3 billion total subsidy figure includes $690.4 million offered by the state of Michigan and $2.3 billion in federal money. That’s enough to purchase 75,222 Volts with a sticker price of $39,828.
Additional state and local support provided to Volt suppliers was not included in the analysis, Hohman said, and could increase the level of government aid. For instance, the Volt is being assembled at the Poletown plant in Detroit/Hamtramck, which was built on land acquired by General Motors through eminent domain.
“It just goes to show there are certain folks that will spend anything to get their vision of what people should do,” said State Representative Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. “It’s a glaring example of the failure of central planning trying to force citizens to purchase something they may not want. … They should let the free market make those decisions.”
“This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant,” said Hohman, referring to the car produced by the former Communist state of East Germany.
Ah yes, the wonderful vehicles of East Germany. That's what the Chevy Volt is: a vehicle created by ideology without consumer demand. State Representative McMillin is spot on in his analysis that liberals will spend anything to enforce their ideology. This is apparent in all totalitarian regimes.
The Chevy Volt: the Electric Edsel.
Chuck Justice is the editor-in-chief for Habledash.