Auto Manifesto

March 25, 2010

DOE Calls BS On V-Vehicles?

The V-Vehicle Company won't be getting government guarantees for low-interest loans to build cars in Louisiana after all.

Why is this company so secretive? My guess it's because there is little substance behind the smoke and mirrors. We've all seen this movie over and over (and over) again with all the hype over so-called green cars.

The idea of building cars that have less of an environmental impact is sound and SHOULD be something the industry focuses on. The problem is that any time you have a paradigm shift that involves large sums of money you get a lot of charlatans, prima donnas and the like.

They promise the moon and the stars and deliver nothing of the sort. In fact, they generally poison the well which has a tendency to ruin it for everyone else.

Anyway, I think the Department of Energy made a good call on this one, cutting losses at $6m rather than potentially blowing $320m+.

The classic list of lines include:

1. The check is in the mail.

2. I'll still respect you in the morning.

3. [Too crude for this blog]

To which we can add:

4. I'll build "x" cars per year which get "y" mpg and will create "z" jobs.

With x, y and z being grossly inflated (and conveniently round) figures of questionable basis.

Labels: , ,

1 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home