Are you in the market for a new car this year? I thought not. But if you are Mr. Obama has a deal for you.
Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - President Barack Obama announced today in Pomona that his administration will help put a million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015 and offer $7,500 tax credits for people who buy them.
Obama, appearing at Southern California Edison's electrical vehicle technical center, where next-generation car batteries are being made, said the incentives are part of an overall plan to upgrade the nation's energy infrastructure.
He said the country has not made independence from foreign oil a priority, noting that the 1908 Model T Ford got better mileage than a typical sport utility vehicle in 2008.
"So the problem isn't a lack of technology," he said. "You're producing the technology right here. The problem is that, for decades, we have avoided doing what must be done as a nation to turn challenge into opportunity.
And what is the challenge? Producing a hybrid at a low enough cost so that you at least break even on the gasoline saved vs. the added cost. And what will a $7,500 subsidy for those who can afford a new car do? It will maintain the price differential between a hybrid and a conventional vehicle at $7,500. Now this might be viable if it was something like $7,500 the first year and $6,500 the second, etc. down to zero. The same thing we should be doing to wind subsidies. However, I see nothing like that in the plan.
There is in the plan $1 billion dollars (only a billion? is that significant?) to upgrade the electrical grid. If that goes into R & D to develop components for HVDC transmission, or carbon nanotube conductors and high power transistors, or the Smart Grid initiative we might actually get something useful for the money. OTOH if they are just going out and buying stuff it will not help much at all.
Why hasn't Polywell Fusion been fully funded by the Obama administration?
The good thing that will probably come from this is a shiny new congress. That will happen about 19 months and 5 million more lost jobs from now.
huggy · March 19, 2009 8:18 PM
huggy, I've got to be totally cynical: Do you actually expect a new congress to be any more competent or honest than this sad example we have now?
On the topic. I was under the impression that Obamama's environmental program would make it even more difficult and costly to produce more electricity. How in the hell does that jive with promoting higher consumption? Aw, why do I even ask, they're so freaking incompetent, they couldn't figure it out if it bit them.
Sorry, I have just totally lost confidence. I hope the turds hit the fan so hard, that all those systemic problems finally get addressed. Ugly, but I see no choice.
martin · March 19, 2009 9:39 PM
It will maintain the price differential between a hybrid and a conventional vehicle at $7,500.
Even if the differential is smaller, that future $7500 has an opportunity cost that only someone who can buy the car at the dealer price without a rebate can afford.
All consumption-based tax credits are "for the rich," or at least the not-poor. You have to buy them, while whatever poor people buy a disproportionate lot of gets "sin" taxed at above the highest marginal income-tax rate.
That's not all a bunch of accidents.
guy on internet · March 20, 2009 1:07 AM
the 1908 Model T Ford got better mileage than a typical sport utility vehicle in 2008
Sure, it was a deathtrap, unheated and uncooled, loud, slow, but it got slightly better fuel economy... with the far more volatile gasolines of the time.
And at a claimed "13-21 mpg", that's not better than a lot of SUVs. (The Honda Pilot gets 16/22.)
Sigivald · March 20, 2009 4:22 PM
"So the problem isn't a lack of technology"...huh? The problem is *specifically* the lack of battery technology that would--in terms of weight, size, cost, and life--make the plug-in hybrid a viable unsubsidized proposition for general use.
This is revelatory about Obama's attitude: all problems are problems of power relationships and can be solved by the restructuring of those relationships.
Sig: my mother's '69 Rambler Ambassador got 17/24 mpg, & it was a V8 that cruised at 80 feeling like it was doing 50. Also, it had smog attachments feeding blow by back with a PCV valve. After we removed the smog crap, we got 26 highway at 70+.
The carcass was hauled out for restoration 3 years ago with 400,000 plus miles on the original block.
Also, it was fully loaded with air, power steering, power brakes, and automatic.
One memorable trip was in 1972 across the salt flats to Salt Lake City at 90 mph. My parents didn't have a clue at the speed because the car felt like it was floating.
Frank · March 21, 2009 12:16 AM
The "Smart Grid" is just a cover story for "demand management." That is, since wind and solar are so unreliable but politically correct, when wind and solar are not available, demand will be managed to fit the grid capacity.
That means remote-controlled thermostats, controls on use of home appliances, hot water heaters, etc.
The state will reach into your home and tell you what and when you can buy electrical power.
As to electric cars, they will ever be limited by batteries. Batteries will ever be limited by electrochemistry which tells us that the best reactant is lithium.
We got lithium batteries alread but they don't have much further to go in their develoment cycle.
Hence, electric cars won't get much more capable.
Another liberal pipe dream.
Whitehall · March 23, 2009 6:30 PM
Whitehall,
Demand management is not a bad idea. It is used on aircraft electrical systems. Load shedding is done in an orderly way if demand exceeds supply. This prevents a total loss of power.
It is already done with customers who are on interruptible contracts. Electric furnace steel mills and aluminum smelters for instance.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
The good thing that will probably come from this is a shiny new congress. That will happen about 19 months and 5 million more lost jobs from now.