Volt Birth Watch 102: Triple-Dip
As Farago mentioned earlier, the Senate has approved a consumer-end PHEV tax credit of $2,500-$7,500, which Automotive News (sub) modestly calls “Volt-friendly.” By which they mean it was designed specifically for the Volt, making the size of the credit dependent on how much charge a qualifying vehicle’s battery can hold. And though battery capacity is a poor measure of efficiency, choosing that metric handily favors the Volt’s EREV design which qualifies for the maximum tax break, while Toyota’s plug-in Prius won’t. And people say that GM’s $14.3m lobbying budget is a waste of money. But America’s Volt subsidy isn’t limited to DC. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority has approved $130m in tax breaks to attract Volt production to the state. The package includes a $122.5 million state tax credit over 15 years for the $838m overall investment and a $10 million brownfield tax credit for the Flint engine plant construction. Automotive News (sub) reports that GM need only retain about ten percent of the 20k jobs at the five existing sites to qualify for the tax benefits. With GM getting a chunk of the $25b bailout loans for production plus $130m in tax breaks and a $7,500 consumer tax break for consumers, the Volt had better freaking cost less than $40k. Not that anyone’s holding their breath.
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With all the incidents of auto theft and vandalism that are prevalent in today's society, how long before some Volt owners go out to unplug their car, only to find it's already been unplugged, and perhaps even had the plug at the end cut off with a wire cutter or knife? Takes about 5 seconds to cause a whole lot of problems for a Volt owner. Of course, they still got the gas engine to fall back on.
I'm gonna start buying stock in companies that make heavy duty extension cords. Where do you plug the Volt in to recharge it if you live in an apartment building, or you live in the city. You gonna run a long cord out your window, down the sidewalk, and out to your car ?.
Somebody will start making armored extension cords if that is such a problem. Just another reason not to live in a place so crowded that I have to put a $40K vehicle beside the curb. Something that expensive better spend the night locked in my garage or parked outside in a town that is safe enough we don't even lock the cars half the time. You better believe I'd lock something that expensive. Our first house wasn't much more expensive and it was a nice place with a yard on a quiet dead end street.