A little more than three years after the chiefs of Detroit’s Big Three
carmakers travelled cap in hand to Washington in hybrids to atone for their
earlier faux pas of flying in private jets, General Motors boss Dan Akerson
drove there in his own Chevrolet Volt.
Yesterday’s hearing, ostensibly meant to probe an earlier federal safety
investigation of the plug-in hybrid, highlights how green technologies are
being portrayed in partisan shades of red or blue.
The Volt may be a convenient “political punching bag”, as Mr Akerson put it,
but it is a mere rounding error for still partially government-owned GM. The
7,671 Volts sold in 2011 were a whopping three-hundredths of 1 per cent of
the carmaker’s US unit sales.
The notion that GM received special treatment in the fire investigation is as
silly as the idea that the car is some sort of political white elephant of
Barack Obama’s administration – Solyndra on wheels.
The Volt’s development by far predates GM’s bankruptcy and, even if it never
becomes viable, was a logical technology to pursue for the world’s largest
car company.
Subsidy
But it is disingenuous to claim that the Volt, and Detroit’s rebound, have not
been milked for maximum political advantage by the White House. It is also
clear that smaller electric vehicle companies, such as Tesla and A123
Systems, are far more dependent on corporate welfare than GM.
True, the $7,500 subsidy carries more weight for upper middle class buyers of
$32,000-$45,000 Nissan Leafs and Volts than rich buyers of $100,000 Fisker
Karmas and Tesla Roadsters, but other largesse keeps pure electric car
companies in business.
When politicians and whizz-bang consumer technology are brought together, the
result is rarely pretty. What is more, even if government does not pick
winners and losers, taxpayer funds are often disbursed in an inefficient way.
But none of this is GM’s doing. It did unabashedly use the Volt to generate
public goodwill, however, and now faces the consequences.
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