zerohedge.com / by Tyler Durden / 09/20/2012 21:51
Sometimes you just have to laugh – for fear of the hysterical crying fit that would ensue from recognizing our shameful pathological reality. To wit: Reuters is reporting on a CBO study that shows the US electric car policy will cost $7.5bn by 2019. The report finds that the government’s policy will have ‘little to no impact’ on overall gasoline consumption. 25% of the cost of the program is going up in Fisker Karma-inspired smoke as part of the $7,500 per vehicle tax credit and the rest of the cost is in grants to such well-deserved and successful operations as GM’s Chevy Volt – which will backfire since the more electric vehicles the automakers sell (thanks to government subsidy) the more ‘higher-margin’ low-fuel-economy guzzlers it can sell and still meet CAFE standards (re-read that – amazing!) In 2012, 13,497 Chevy Volts and 4.228 Nissan Leafs have been sold (all that pent-up demand) as the CBO notes that despite the $7,500 subsidy, the cost-differential to conventional cars remains too wide – inferring a $12,000 tax credit would be more comparable.
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