Bloomberg – NYC to Expand Electric Car Outlets 20% - New York Times – Test Drive Ended Up on Flatbed – Fantasy Versus Reality and the Cost of Funding Business. Bloomberg Should Retire in DC

President Obama invests in "Electric Cars" - Image and article from www.igocars.org - Will Obama Help Grow an Electric Car Bumper Crop in Hawaii"

In his State of the City address, New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, outlined an aggressive end to his third term according to Bloomberg.com In the address, Bloomberg plans to ban Styrofoam, compost food waste from Staten Island and insure the city is more friendly to Electric Cars, mandating that 20% of all future parking spaces be “outfitted to charge electric vehicles” (Bloomberg.com). In the same week, in the same city, an apparent disagreement with the viability of using an electric care started between New York Times auto reporter, John Broder, and the car manufacturer Telsa. (New York Times) The gist: Broder test drove a model of the electric car, one which is designed to go the distance, from Washington to New York City. Apparently, Broder took a detour, and the car ended up being transported back to New York, along with Broder, on a flat bed truck. Going from D.C. to New York City, is not a Sunday drive, however, it’s not a cross country trip either, one would think that the battery would hold up for at least as long as one’s laptop. Telsa fired back that the author of the article didn’t like the car and was therefore biased. The fact that the cars do not perform well in colder climes, apparently is a non-starter with the U.S. government funded business.

Adding fuel to the fire, a scathing editorial on Philly.com by by the Washington Post’s Charles Lane, suggests that the New York Times reporter had a point. In addition Lane included the Obama administration in his dressing down of the high priced, inefficient and tax-payer funded fiasco:

Who wants a $101,000 car that might die just because you take "a long detour"?

President Obama repeatedly declared that, with enough federal aid, we can put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. His administration has invested about $5 billion in grants, guaranteed loans - including $465 million for Tesla - and tax incentives to buyers.

Yet Americans bought just 71,000 plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles in the past two years, according to GreenCarReports.com. That's about a third as many as the Energy Department forecast in a 2011 report that attempted to explain why Obama's goal was not preposterous.

Federal billions cannot overcome the fact that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids meet few, if any, consumers' needs. Compared with gas-powered cars, they deliver inferior performance at a higher cost. As an American Physical Society symposium on battery research concluded in June: "Despite their many potential advantages, all-electric vehicles will not replace the standard American family car in the foreseeable future."

(Philly.com)

Lane goes on to quote notables from the world of car manufacturing, suggesting the idea of manufacturing electric cars was somewhat of a “mistake”. Moreover, in closing, Lane notes that the Obama Administration’s, Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, does not even own a car.

The entire premise upon which this former capitalist United States was based was simple. One would invent and build something the public might want, and would be either a success or fail dismally. If one failed, one had the option of declaring bankruptcy and trying again. That changed when the U.S. government has decided which businesses to “back” or “partner” with, fund that business, include mandates to protect and promote that business, and when that business fails, add more funds. Meanwhile, there is a need to increase taxes, to cover additional debt by those “lawmakers” who only leave Washington DC by flying over the rest of the nation.

One would suggest that those who are pushing for more tax payer funded projects test them personally, first, before funding begins. Should those living in the wealthiest city in the nation (DC), find a product less than worthy, it might end the insanity – or not, given that there may be a ton of money in DC, (which does not produce a thing other than taxpayer cash), but zero common sense. When Bloomberg retires, perhaps he can find a job with the Obama administration, he’ll fit right in.



Food for thought