Obama Tells Automakers To Dump Their Profitable SUV's and Trucks

If President Obama had his way, automakers would dump SUV's and trucks for economy cars and electric vehicles. Of course, automakers are going to make what sells at a decent profit, not what s politically correct according to the Obama administration. This lecture by Obama only highlights his complete lack of business experience.

(E2 Wire) — The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.

“You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.”

Obama has positioned the revival and reshaping of the auto industry as a major part of his administration’s push to improve the economy and create jobs.

“When I came into office they were talking about the liquidation of GM and Chrysler, and a lot of folks said you can’t help them, and it’s a waste of the government’s money to try and help them,” Obama said Monday. “But what I said was, we can’t afford to lose up to a million jobs in this country, particularly in the Midwest.”

Obama was speaking at the start of a three-day bus tour of the Midwest. He will visit Decorah, Iowa, later in the day.

U.S taxpayers tape $7500 to the hood of every Chevy volt sold. California tapes another $5000.

Hybrid vehicles are hot sellers...to the government

For ordinary taxpayers, interest is waning.

FOX Nation reported:

President Barack Obama’s administration has bought almost a fourth of the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. hybrid vehicles sold since he took office, accelerating federal purchases as consumer demand wanes.

The U.S. General Services Administration, which runs the government fleet, bought at least 14,584 hybrid vehicles in the past two fiscal years, or about 10 percent of 145,473 vehicles the agency purchased in that period, according to sales data obtained by Bloomberg under a Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal 2008, hybrids accounted for less than 1 percent of government purchases, the data showed.

GAO: Electric Cars Won't Reduce CO2 Emissions

The startling conclusion of a new GAO report is there would be no reduction of carbon emissions from switching to electric vehicles.

From Hot Air:

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports:

It’s a beautiful theory — highways full of electric cars emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants after being plugged into an outlet in our garages overnight. The problem, according to a new Government Accountability Office report, is that the effort may only shift the problem somewhere else.

“If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country’s electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?” asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: “Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy.”

The GAO report says a plug-in compact car, if recharged at an outlet drawing its power from coal, provides a carbon dioxide savings of only 4% to 5%. If the feeling of saving the environment from driving an electric car causes people to drive more, that small amount of savings vanishes entirely.

Electric cars might get us out from under the heel of OPEC, but we would just have a new overlord.

The GAO also points out that electric cars would have the US trading one set of dictators for another in order to power our cars. The batteries for electric vehicles are lithium-ion, and for the experimental production levels in the US at this moment, we have enough lithium resources to keep pace. However, once we start building electric cars in mass numbers, we will quickly run through our proven stores of lithium. We would most likely have to do business with Hugo Chavez lackey Evo Morales of Bolivia, where half of the world’s proven stores of lithium reside. Even if we didn’t buy directly from the leftist leader, Morales has the ability to set the global price — just as Saudi Arabia and OPEC do with oil.

Biden Blunders Again

Blundering Joe Biden praises NYC tunnel project as a boon for commuting drivers. We hope they don't get hit by the trains that will actually be using it.
From Fox News:

Avid train rider and Vice President Joe Biden, on a conference call Monday with reporters, mistakenly claimed that the planned Hudson River tunnel between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan would provide a much-anticipated route for automobiles.

Problem is, it's for trains.

The $8.7 billion tunnel is among the largest new projects to be funded in the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package.

"Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic," Biden said, according to The Record of Bergen County. "It's something, as you know, up your way, that's been in the works and people have been clamoring for for a long time."

The Record, which asked Biden the tunnel-related question on the call, called the vice president out on the error. The north Jersey newspaper noted that the tunnel would accommodate more New Jersey Transit trains during peak hours -- cars are not part of the equation.

From Iowahawk: The 2012 Pelosi GTxi (video)

This spoof of "green" cars is hilarious. Enjoy. From Hawk del Iowa via Little Green Footballs.

The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition (video via YouTube)

Obama tries to save Detroit by forcing them to build cars Americans don't want

The Obama administration is set to announce tough standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 for new cars and trucks. These standards will force automakers to aggressively pursue electric and hybrid vehicles. Obama thinks he can save Detroit by forcing them to build cars Americans don't want. The biggest selling vehicle in the US is the Ford F150 truck. Americans love bigger vehicles and SUV's for the safety, power, styling and convenience they offer. Sales of hybrid vehicles rose dramatically last spring, but they can only be supported with gas prices in the $4~$5 range. You had to wait to buy a hybrid vehicle last May. Now, sales have dropped by almost two thirds and there is an eighty day dealer supply. Electric cars have never been practical for most Americans due to the longer distances we drive. Batteries don't have the range. From Freep.com:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will announce Tuesday a breakthrough compromise to set tough standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 for new cars and trucks in return for California backing off its push for more stringent rules on automakers. Advertisement The rules could radically reshape the U.S. automotive industry by forcing automakers to push higher levels of technology such as hybrid-electric drives into vehicles faster than once planned. The deal fulfills Obama’s campaign promise to push Detroit and other automakers toward more fuel-stingy vehicles, but will also sharply raise the industry's costs for meeting regulations. Under the pact, new federal rules would increase current mileage standards 5% annually to 39 m.p.g. for cars and 30 m.p.g. for light trucks in model year 2016, said a senior administration official. Current standards require new cars to average 27.5 m.p.g. and new trucks to get 23.1 m.p.g.

Taxpayers bail out GM so they can import Chinese cars

U.S Taxpayers have bailed out GM for $14 billion. Now, GM plans on importing Chinese cars. So, the U.S. government is borrowing money from the Chinese to save GM. Then, GM can build cars in China and sell them to us. After which, we will pay taxes to the government and they will use that money to pay on the debt we owe China. Got it? According to Fox News:

The latest twist in Detroit’s do-over has General Motors becoming the first automaker to import Chinese-built cars into the United States, according to Automotive News.

Citing a leaked document shown to lawmakers who are overseeing the restructuring of the auto giant, the newspaper reports that GM is planning to market made in China cars to American consumers as early as 2011, the same year the company’s heralded Chevrolet Volt electric car goes on sale.

General Motors is currently the best-selling foreign automaker in China, and Buick is number one brand overall, part of the reason that the nameplate was saved during a recent round of cuts that included the elimination of Pontiac. As an example of the growing influence of that marketplace on the company, the interior of the upcoming replacement for the Buick LaCrosse sedan was designed at a GM studio in Shanghai.

According to the report, GM plans to sell nearly 18,000 Chinese-made vehicles in the US in 2011, with that number rising to over 50,000 by 2014.