AUTO INDUSTRY HAS A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
For years the auto industry has had a closely guarded secret: the price of electric vehicle batteries. They didn't want you, the consumer to know how much they cost because they know that one day (if you purchase an electric car) you will have to pay to replace them.
Well Ford's Chief Executive Alan Mulally let the cat out of the bag.
While speaking at a forum on green technology last week, Mulally revealed that the battery packs for the electric Ford Focus costs between $12,000 and $15,000 a piece:
"When you move into an all-electric vehicle, the battery size moves up to around 23 kilowatt hours, [and] it weighs around 600 to 700 pounds," Mr. Mulally said at Fortune magazine's Brainstorm Green conference in California.
"They're around $12,000 to $15,000 [a battery]" for a type of car that normally sells for about $22,000, he continued, referring to the price of a gasoline-powered Focus. "So, you can see why the economics are what they are." |
The Ford Focus EV costs $39,200. The Regular Ford Focus costs $22,000. Even with President Obama's
$7,500 taxpayer-funded electric vehicle subsidy, the EV will cost $31,700, roughly $10,000 more than the regular model (which gets between 35 and 40 miles to the gallon and does not eat up your electricity bill because it needs to be charged.)
One third of the cost of this vehicle is its battery. And at some point during the vehicle's lifespan that battery will need to be replaced. That brings the total cost of the vehicle, with subsidy, to $46,700.
Gas would need to be, as President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu put it, at the "levels in Europe" for a prolonged time (many, many years) for this car to eventually pay for the difference in price.
And yet President Obama and his Administration are trying to make us all buy these. Electric vehicles are far more expensive than regular vehicles, do little to help the planet (since they're charged by coal-powered electricity) and tend to catch fire.
It's time we tell President Obama to stop pushing these vehicles, and stop giving taxpayer dollars to the wealthy people who buy them. H.R.3768 is a bill in Congress that would eliminate the wealthy's taxpayer giveaway. It is a perfect example of what needs to be done in our country. By eliminating subsidies like those for plug-in electric vehicles like the failed Chevy Volt and other expensive plug-ins, we send a message to President Obama that we are serious about cutting spending, and serious about ending the reliance on subsidies. Issues like these can defeat liberals who believe that YOU should pay for someone else's car.
CLICK HERE to fax Member of the House of Representatives and tell them to co-sponsor and support H.R.3768. Tell them that ending subsidies like this one is the right thing to do and will help cut spending and rescue our economy. Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA) has introduced legislation that would stop our tax dollars from going to fund these vehicles, which are inefficient and costly.
The average income of those who buy plug-in electric vehicles (like the administration's failed Chevy Volt) is $170,000 per year.
Why are middle class taxpayers subsidizing high income subsidies? President Obama and his allies on the left want to push energy prices higher so that expensive vehicles - like the Focus EV or the Chevy Volt - seem more reasonable. But
Americans can't afford that scenario.
Currently, high gas prices are stalling our economy and making everything from getting to work to groceries more expensive. We can't keep going down this road of high energy costs, and we can't afford sustained high energy.
And we certainly can't afford to pay for other people to drive expensive cars. H.R.3768 is a bill in Congress that would eliminate the wealthy's taxpayer giveaway. It is a perfect example of what needs to be done in our country. By eliminating subsidies like those for plug-in electric vehicles like the failed Chevy Volt and other expensive plug-ins, we send a message to President Obama that we are serious about cutting spending, and serious about ending the reliance on subsidies. Issues like these can defeat liberals who believe that YOU should pay for someone else's car.
CLICK HERE to fax Member of the House of Representatives and tell them to co-sponsor and support H.R.3768. Tell them that ending subsidies like this one is the right thing to do and will help cut spending and rescue our economy. While the Administration touts China as an example of why we should be subsidizing "green" energy, the truth tells a different tale.
In reality, China is ratcheting down its "investments" in "green" energy and focusing on what will
actually power the economy: fuel efficiency, coal and natural gas. Meanwhile, the United States is deceived into thinking wind, solar, and electric vehicles are the wave of the future.
President Obama's whole push to increase the use of "green" energy has resulted in it accounting for just 5% of our nation's energy supply. Why? Because it's far more expensive and far less efficient than conventional means of energy.
And the same goes for the pipe dream of electric vehicles. You pay $10,000 more for an electric car (before the battery replacement) than a traditional gasoline vehicle. The plug-in electric vehicle industry generously claims that you will save $1,000 a year on fuel costs (independent analysis is lower), but let's assume the industry is telling the truth.
It would take ten years to make up the upfront expense of the vehicle. The average length of time a car is owned is now just 6 years, so already you won't make up the cost. And electric vehicles need to have their batteries replaced every 5 years or so, so you're guaranteed to have to replace that battery. And since those batteries cost about $15,000 dollars,
you would actually need to own the vehicle for 25 years before covering all the added costs associated it in the amount of gas you save.
Yet we're subsidizing these cars?
H.R.3768 is a bill in Congress that would eliminate the wealthy's taxpayer giveaway. It is a perfect example of what needs to be done in our country. By eliminating subsidies like those for plug-in electric vehicles like the failed Chevy Volt and other expensive plug-ins, we send a message to President Obama that we are serious about cutting spending, and serious about ending the reliance on subsidies. Issues like these can defeat liberals who believe that YOU should pay for someone else's car.
CLICK HERE to fax Member of the House of Representatives and tell them to co-sponsor and support H.R.3768. Tell them that ending subsidies like this one is the right thing to do and will help cut spending and rescue our economy. Americans can no longer afford to subsidize everything under the sun. We certainly can't afford to subsidize vehicles that make no economical sense to anyone except the very wealthy.
Please Fax every Member of the House of Representatives now and tell them to co-sponsor and support H.R.3768.
Conservative Action Alerts
http://news.dienerconsultants.com/ct/8568509:11904056399:m:1:196255036:A403B0553B72DBCE68FD08BF969FC6E5:r P.S. With gas prices on the rise, a better solution would be to lower energy costs, not try to force people into even more expensive cars. If President Obama truly cared about the American people and their suffering, he would stop taking our tax dollars to subsidize failing technologies.
