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For those in the suburbs driving less than 35miles a day (10-12k miles a year, depending on driving pattern on weekends), neither Volt nor Prius makes much financial sense. $60/mo or so gas expense saving capitalizes to only about $6000 (battery replacement will be a huge bear after 5-10 years). Prius' price premium over a conventional ICE compact is very close to that number, whereas Volt blows such a huge hole in the wallet from the get-go there is no chance of catching up whatsoever.
The execution problems with the Volt are far beyond back-of-the-envelope cost numbers. For a $40k "halo" car, GM would have been far better off marketing it as a Cadillac . . . then re-skin it after half a decade as a $25k Chevy after volume is established. This $40k Chevy is neither here nor there, a classic example of how political decision making ruining business. Everything has a cost, because when resources allocated to one thing means something else is being deprived of the same resources. So timing and pricing are crucially important (order of precedence in resource allocation). Otherwise, why don't we just start building a lunar elevator now because a couple hundred years from now at the most there will be a lunar elevator that people on earth can take to the moon. The problem is that now we have neither the technology nor the resources for building such an elevator. Any resource spent on such impractical projects would be wasted and eventually delay the real successful lunar elevator. It is the necessity to be "profitable" in a timely manner that makes private businesses where consumers have freedom of choice far superior to government gun-run coercive resource allocation, where consumers have no real individual choice and resources are wasted at every detailed turn due to political considerations.
posted by 75.67.1...
, Mon, 5 Mar 2012 03:31:21, Mon, 5 Mar 2012 10:17:52, Sun, 4 Mar 2012 08:25:13
, Tue, 6 Mar 2012 08:33:10, Mon, 5 Mar 2012 22:27:47
, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 16:06:29
, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 06:59:26, Fri, 2 Mar 2012 18:55:09, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 01:25:05, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 05:13:25, Fri, 2 Mar 2012 17:10:36, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 08:48:50, Fri, 2 Mar 2012 18:37:44, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 08:29:10, Sat, 3 Mar 2012 09:08:32
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