Obviously you won't hear much about this in mainstream US media ...
(snip)"The Chevy Volt is a car that only appeals to preening schmoes and will fall flat on its face.
Or so says Audi of America president, Johan de Nysschen, who went off on the Chevy Volt and electric cars in general, with Lawrence Ulrich of MSN's Exhaust Notes.
Nysschen tells Ulrich, “No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla...They’re for the intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are...so there are not enough idiots who will buy it."
He thinks the Volt will fall flat, and then the government will rush to its aid with generous subsidies so as to not look like a bunch of fools.
Nysschen would rather the government supported more diesels since they produce fewer emissions than an electric car that's charged by coal. And they're ready today at a competitive price. He says the government is tricking the public into thinking electrics are clean. Unless the power grid gets cleaner, our electric cars will remain dirty."(snip)
Besides the future cost to US taxpayers of yet more gov't subsidies to General Motors, there is also an issue of future cost to US taxpayers of the huge tax credits given for the purchase of electric vehicles. As Mr. Nysschen points out, unless and until the US power grid's sources of generation become cleaner, in point of fact the switch from gasoline engines to electric motors in vehicles will accomplish extremely little in the way of overall environmental benefits within the USA ... and will arguably increase total emissions on a global basis as 3rd world countries produce far more pollution by mining and refining the new raw materials needed for those electric motors / batteries etc.



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