The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream: that one day his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
President Barack Obama also has a dream: that his children will live in a nation where there is an electric car in every garage.
King’s dream challenged our values; Obama’s dream is challenging our pocketbooks.
Lots of Americans hoped that the federal government’s grand experiment with creating an electric car would turn out well, or at least that it wouldn’t be a disaster.
But the dream has become a financial nightmare, at least when it comes to the Chevy Volt. Edward Niedermeyer, editor of the website The Truth About Cars, has been tallying the costs to taxpayers.
- A $50 billion bailout for General Motors;
- Another $240 million for GM from the Energy Department;
- $150 million for the Korean maker of the Volt’s battery;
- $1.5 billion in tax breaks and incentives—buyers get a $7,500 tax credit—to encourage people to buy an electric car;
- And some part of a $14 billion loan to GM for “retooling.”
And for that pile of taxpayer money GM is offering an electric car that costs $41,000—when the median family income is about $52,000—and gets about 40 miles on a charge. Only in Washington—indeed, only in this White House—would they call that a success.
But the Volt is only one example. Last year, the Department of Energy granted a $528 million loan to a start-up California car company that had never mass-produced a car.
Fisker Automotive’s first car is a hybrid sports car that sells for $90,000—and is being made in Finland.
Fisker swears that the half-billion dollar taxpayer loan will only be used to produce a more affordable U.S.-made hybrid car—for $40,000. And that the loan will be repaid, with interest. Of course, that’s only if the Fisker—and GM for that matter— can actually sell those cars.
Kind of gives a whole new meaning to a “green car.”