Saturday, July 31, 2010
Prediction
So Pres. Obama thinks the new Chevrolet Volt is God's gift to the car-buying public, at $41k per copy. Maybe so ... time will tell.
As previously stated, I'm no economist. I have no crystal ball. But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that, although some early adopters and very earnest (and well-off) greens will buy the Volt, the vast majority of Volt sales will be to federal and state government agencies. And I predict that those agencies will find , when the cost of recharging stations and other support (including training for technicians) is added into the whole program, the cost of their Volts over the life of the vehicle will far exceed the cost for conventionally powered vehicles of similar size and performance capability.
BTW, I'm also assuming (perhaps naively) that the government won't do something to increase the cost of ownership of conventionally powered vehicles to the extent that the Volt looks good by comparison. That's the problem when the Federal government owns an industry--they can "un-level" the playing field in a myriad of ways. And of course politicians always want to make themselves look good.
As long as we have our present political class in power, the only thing I trust the government to do is muck things up. Ringo is right!
As previously stated, I'm no economist. I have no crystal ball. But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that, although some early adopters and very earnest (and well-off) greens will buy the Volt, the vast majority of Volt sales will be to federal and state government agencies. And I predict that those agencies will find , when the cost of recharging stations and other support (including training for technicians) is added into the whole program, the cost of their Volts over the life of the vehicle will far exceed the cost for conventionally powered vehicles of similar size and performance capability.
BTW, I'm also assuming (perhaps naively) that the government won't do something to increase the cost of ownership of conventionally powered vehicles to the extent that the Volt looks good by comparison. That's the problem when the Federal government owns an industry--they can "un-level" the playing field in a myriad of ways. And of course politicians always want to make themselves look good.
As long as we have our present political class in power, the only thing I trust the government to do is muck things up. Ringo is right!
Labels: Obama, Regulation
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