Chevy Volt costs Taxpayers 250k per vehicle?

[westwall]

If this is true it brings new meaning to the term taxpayer assitance!


"Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government.

The Volt subsidies flow through multiple companies involved in production. The analysis includes adding up the amount of government subsidies via tax credits and direct funding for not only General Motors, but other companies supplying parts for the vehicle. For example, the Department of Energy awarded a $105.9 million grant to the GM Brownstown plant that assembles the batteries. The company was also awarded approximately $106 million for its Hamtramck assembly plant in state credits to retain jobs. The company that supplies the Volt’s batteries, Compact Power, was awarded up to $100 million in refundable battery credits (combination tax breaks and cash subsidies). These are among many of the subsidies and tax credits for the vehicle.

It’s unlikely that all the companies involved in Volt production will ever receive all the $3 billion in incentives, Hohman said, because many of them are linked to meeting various employment and other milestones. But the analysis looks at the total value that has been offered to the Volt in different aspects of production – from the assembly line to the dealerships to the battery manufacturers. Some tax credits and subsidies are offered for periods up to 20 years, though most have a much shorter time frame."



Chevy Volt Costing Taxpayers Up to $250K Per Vehicle [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

 

[RGR]

Your article seems to indicate that subsidies to retain JOBS was somehow confused with subsidies for the Volt. Sort of like saying that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan were a means to jumpstart cash to widows by getting their menfolk killed.

 

[HoosierJoe]

Who are we to argue all of this Hope and Change?

 

[Mad Scientist]

Toyota is rolling out a new hybrid next year called the "Aqua" and it supposedly gets up to 83 mpg. I'll be called the Prius C here in the states. I'm trying to convince my wife to trade in her Yaris for one next year:

Toyota Aqua / Prius C launches in Japan along with TRD and Modellista versions

 

[Sallow]

Wow the government is investing in something that doesn't kill people?

Finally.

 

[uscitizen]

So the chevy volt is the only car being built under federal, state and local "incentives"?

 

[Truthmatters]

Mackinac Center for Public Policy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Principles

The Mackinac Center’s work is rooted in the tradition of John Locke and Adam Smith. More recently, the Center has spoken approvingly about the Tea Party movement.[14] The Mackinac Center often cites work by three Nobel Laureates who are unaffiliated with the Mackinac Center: Milton Friedman, who first proposed the concept of school choice, which is now promoted by the Center’s Education Initiative; F.A. Hayek whose ideas about spontaneous order and inability of government central planners to create thriving economies are seen in the Center’s criticism of targeted tax credits and corporate subsidies used by government economic development bureaucracies; and James M. Buchanan, whose work in public choice economics has informed many of the organization’s critiques of state government programs. Although it is sometimes called “conservative” (including by the New York Times[15] and the Raleigh News and Observer[16]), the Mackinac Center characterizes the label as inaccurate, pointing out that it does not address social issues usually identified with modern conservatism including abortion, censorship, and gambling, and that “free market” is a more useful shorthand description of its policy expressions.[17] The Center’s ideology is most accurately described as classical liberal, holding that civil society responses to social and economic problems are more effective than political ones, and that limited government is more conducive to enhancing individual liberty than the welfare state.

 

[edthecynic]

Gee, most of those grants seem to predate Obama!

 

[Truthmatters]

Its a biased acessment of the numbers

 

[Zoom-boing]

Toyota is rolling out a new hybrid next year called the "Aqua" and it supposedly gets up to 83 mpg. I'll be called the Prius C here in the states. I'm trying to convince my wife to trade in her Yaris for one next year:

Toyota Aqua / Prius C launches in Japan along with TRD and Modellista versions

Wow the government is investing in something that doesn't kill people?

Finally.

Smart Car

New Orleans Involving Two Trucks And A Smart Car at less than 10 MPH.

 

[Truthmatters]

get real numbers and not lies

 

[edthecynic]

Its a biased acessment of the numbers

Any number from a CON$ervative is ALWAYS grossly exaggerated.

 

[Truthmatters]

I do not trust think tank numbers

 

[RGR]

So the chevy volt is the only car being built under federal, state and local "incentives"?

Nope. All cars are built under such incentives. Take the yearly US defense budget, figure that maybe half of it is dedicated to defending oil supplies, divide that by the number of new cars sold in the US (13 million perhaps?) and you get a federal subsidy for the fuel alone of about $23G for each new car. Add that subsidy in and make consumers pay for it, and want to bet more people will want a Volt when the true cost of gasoline is factored in?

 

[RGR]

Toyota is rolling out a new hybrid next year called the "Aqua" and it supposedly gets up to 83 mpg. I'll be called the Prius C here in the states. I'm trying to convince my wife to trade in her Yaris for one next year:

Toyota Aqua / Prius C launches in Japan along with TRD and Modellista versions

Interesting. The wife wants a CT200h Lexus, maybe I can talk her into waiting for this thing.

 

[saveliberty]

Just follow the trail. Look up companies that accepted stimulus money that are auto related. There are many of them and easy to find with a web search. Note all of them that are third, second and first tier suppliers to GM and Chrysler building batteries. Pretty much shows everything you need to confirm this.