The WSJ’s Holman Jenkins splashes some cold water on the suggestion that General Motors’ Volt automobile will have much of a positive impact either environmentally or on GM’s bottom line:
At best, the Volt will be an affluent family’s third car. It will have to be plugged in for six hours a day – i.e., it will be a car for a suburbanite with a sizeable garage wired for power. It won’t be a car for a city dweller who parks on the street or in a public lot. It will travel 40 miles on a six-hour charge. After that, a small gas motor will kick in to recharge the battery while you drive. Some reports claim the Volt will get 50 mpg in this mode, but that’s hallucinatory: If using a gasoline engine to power an electric motor were so efficient, the streets would be full of such vehicles. (Our guess: The car will be lucky to get 15 mpg under gasoline power.)
Notice that, even today, some people continue to buy SUVs capable of hauling eight passengers, the dog and groceries, though they spend most of their time in the car driving alone. Customers value flexibility in their vehicles. For a car with the Volt’s narrow usability to sell would require an unlikely revolution in consumer behavior, especially if gasoline prices aren’t going to $10 a gallon.
So why is GM placing so much emphasis on development of an auto that is not particularly competitive in the marketplace? The answer: government financing: