Wednesday, September 28, 2011

How To Say Chevy Volt in Chinese

GM is supposed to be the leader in making more fuel efficient and "greener" automobiles, all the while propelling American workers back into a booming economy. The federal government made this clear, and it was a condition that had to be met to get the big bail-out money. As the Obama administration tries to push its jobs bill forward, Americans should be able to reasonably expect that GM and the auto worker's union were already doing their part to boost this nation's ailing economy. As fate would have it, Chevy Volt sales are nearly non-existent. The idea arises that maybe GM could sell more Volts if they were available in booming markets like....say...China. Nice, right? Well here is the rub. The price of the Volt is too high for the Chinese market, so the Chinese government would have to offer a $20,000 "going green" subsidy PER CAR to make the Volt affordable enough. Ummm, Okay, that should do it, right? Not quite. Next, the Chinese will only accept the Volt in their marketplace if GM SHARES its EV technology so Chinese automakers would be able to produce competing vehicles. Gosh that seems a little much don't you think? Not really. To seal the deal, GM has agreed to share the technology AND build the Volts going to China in........wait for it.......China. (I am not kidding).

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