I think the Edsel is getting a break

The Edsel was a line of car manufactured by Ford 58-60 that never caught on with the market and ended up costing the Ford Motor Company 350 million. In today’s money, that’s 2.45 billion. And in Americana the term “Edsel” has become synonymous with failure. But I think that title will be taken over by two words: Chevy Volt.

From the official propaganda arm of the left, The NY Times has a great column on what we, the is the taxpayers, will be putting into this disaster before one goes to the showroom:

Quantifying just how much taxpayer money will have been wasted on the hastily developed Volt is no easy feat. Start with the $50 billion bailout (without which none of this would have been necessary), add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt’s Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for “retooling” its plants, and you’ve got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.

What makes me think about this taking the title of failure from the Edsel. At least the Edsel sold some units. 84000 in three years. Less than half the breakeven point for Ford but at least it made the sales without taxpayer support.

A basic question any half ass businessman will ask that no politician will ask, especially B Hussein Obama: Is there a market for this? The answer is no. But that won’t stop a man-child like B Hussein Obama from spending other people’s money. And when the thing falls flat on its face, Obama will just say “I’ll appoint anther Czar to oversee more Volts.”

The electric car has been a dream for the left for over a century. From the Daily Beast,

The electric-car industry has a century-long history of failure tailgating failure. And yet we are being told that this time things are different, that the technologies are better, the batteries are better, and that consumers are ready to adopt electrics like never before. Perhaps that’s true. But consider this declaration: The electric car “has long been recognized as the ideal solution” because it “is cleaner and quieter” and “much more economical.”

That story was published by The New York Times on November 12, 1911.

Or given that the new Chevy Volt costs as much as a new Mercedes-Benz C350, consider this assessment by a believing reporter: “Prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they are within reach of the average family.”

That line appeared in The Washington Post on Halloween 1915.

And since the Volt is being built by GM, this news item says that the giant carmaker has found “a breakthrough in batteries” that “now makes electric cars commercially practical.” The new zinc-nickel oxide batteries will provide the “100-mile range that General Motors executives believe is necessary to successfully sell electric vehicles to the public.”

That story was published in The Washington Post on September 26, 1979.

Now fast-forward to July 2008, when Thomas Friedman of The New York Times declared that Shai Agassi—the founder of an electric-car company called Better Place—was “the Jewish Henry Ford.” Friedman went on to claim that Agassi was launching “an energy revolution” that would end the world’s “oil addiction.” Never mind that when Friedman wrote his story Agassi’s fleet of electric cars consisted of exactly one prototype.

But again, leftist don’t get the fact no one wants it. I doubt there will be enough sales on this electric lawnmower to break the Edsel’s record of 84000 units sold.
Add it up. Almost 75 billion in taxpayer money for nothing.