Read it and weep.

The volt is a political halo car - for both GM and OBama. The majority of sales have been fleets - govt and regulated utilities. It has and continues to be a market and thus financial failure.

the sizable fleet purchases by clearly vested interests are undeniable.

And how many of those volts were bought by private individuals? Cronies like GE and verizon have agreed to buy thousands of them - GE said they are buying 12,000.

it is selling far worse than was hoped. many of those "sold" were force fed to govt fleets. Care to list the vehicles that sell in smaller volumes? my bet is that they are dogs in the market for pretty obvious reasons.

Both the tesla and the volt are massive market failures even though both companies lose/lost money on each and every one.

Sorry to pick a nit, but 70s Buick Skylarks had round speedo dials, not like the '67 you have linked to...

Hydraulic fluid outlets and inlets to power any number of implements.

It is not just partisan bickering. To say that those who want answers are on equal moral footing to those excusing it by describing it as such is repugnant and plainly partisan - pro-Obama.

My Mother had exactly that car in that awesome blue colour. It was indeed a hoot as was my '88. Drove the snot out of them both and - a few very expensive alternators aside were both reliable and thanks to the double wishbones, able to endure the rough roads of my native Newfoundland.

Your point is taken somewhat. The number of cars fisker would have to sell (not make) to get to a profitable level would have to be enormous if they were to go out the door for the price they were asking. Likely more than Mercedes sells in s-classes every year.

Govt should stay as far away as possible from subsidizing end product development.

Losing 500000 per car means that the entire business had no chance of success. Some fairly simple oversight - oversight that was deliberately not done would have stopped the American taxpayer from being taken as much as they were.

Fisker lost over 500000 PER car. it was beyond hopeless that these cars could be made profitably. The auto news sector was completely hoodwinked by the bogus list prices and it passed it onto the general public and as a result gave the Obama administration a pass until after the election.

The biggest 'driver' of driving is work. The US has fallen to levels of labor participation not seen since the early sixties when most women were homemakers.

The article actually is incorrect - he did not call electrics nonsense. He called the zero emissions term and regs that call electrics zero emissions nonsense.

Tough? My ass. No snow. No hills. And wind that is appreciable but a joke compared to my home province of Newfoundland.

Was that over an eighth of a mile or the quarter?

Actually that is incorrect. solar activity has been on an extended quiet phase - part of a 30 yr phase that began a couple of years ago.

You say that but didn't know what AGW was. Clearly your level of ignorance on the issue - particularly what has happened in the past year - is appreciable.