# What Is GM Thinking?



## EVDL Archive (Jul 26, 2007)

Holman Jenkins, Jr thinks that pouring 'hundreds of millions into a race to launch an electric car, the Chevy Volt, guaranteed to lose money on every unit sold, begins to seem a peculiar strategy for a company in dire liquidity straits.'

More...


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## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

It wouldn't be a loser, if GM would just drop the ICE charging system.

This could be a commuter car success story, as large as any, but make it fully EV....


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## ClintK (Apr 27, 2008)

You know, I wrote a post that ripped apart each of this guys points, but then I realized... it's not necessary. This guy is a complete quack and anyone that reads this brainless rant knows he's an idiot.


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## Daraddishman (Jul 5, 2008)

Reading the comments on this article was far more interesting than the actual article itself. I did go check out the original article as well, and took a look at the spartan commentary on the Wall Street Journal's site. Nobody seems to be impressed with this article.

I found the part where a small electric motor used to charge batteries would have less than 15 MPG as a mileage rating. That's just absolutely hilarious.

This is an editorial, so I give it a bit of slack, but my goodness, I have heard better editorial writing from grade schoolers...


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## jlsawell (Apr 4, 2008)

Daraddishman said:


> I found the part where a small electric motor used to charge batteries would have less than 15 MPG as a mileage rating. That's just absolutely hilarious.


At Dien Bien Phu, the French Paratroopers had a situation where they would pull the pin on a grenade to throw at the enemy, and a little piece of paper would come out reading "We support the Indocinnese Freedom Fighters - signed, Women's Communist Collective of Paris" or something similar. The grenade was a dud and we all know what happened to the French in Indochina.

I see a lot of similarities with the US Auto industry. Married to the oil industry there's absolutely a dis-incentive to be fuel efficient. In "Who Killed the Electric Car" the auto industry was saying "We can't do "x" mpg cars by 2015 - it's too hard, extend the deadline". 

The documentary showed that Japanese cars were already exceeding the target mileage, so the US were effectively saying "in 8 years, we can't get to where the Japanese were yesterday, and we don't care where the Japansese will be in 8 years"

The whole system is rotten from the core, so just like the French, those few who try to go out and do the right thing and sabotaged by the very people they are trying to save. Whether it's through ignorance, laziness, corporate greed or just schadenfreunde, the result is the same. It's very sad.


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