AND 
The Chevy Volt Now a Transformer Called Jolt
A few weeks before GM unveiled the production version of the Chevy Volt, some spy shots got leaked from the set of the upcoming film, Transformers 2, which is expected to premier this summer.
It is now apparently confirmed that the Volt will indeed be a transformer by the name of Jolt. Some transformer fan websites have even gotten some photos of Jolt in production toy form, shown above.
Per the text, Jolt has been outfitted with lashing “electro whips” and is a “whirlwind of crackling energy.”
I suspect no little ones found one of these under their trees yesterday as the toy is clearly its marked NOT FOR SALE.
If Transformers 2 winds up a hit film it should be co-incident with public release of the final Volt prototypes which may order in the dozens by the summer of 09, making for good publicity.
Source (TF08) and (Seibertron) via (Jalopnik)
54 Responses to “The Chevy Volt Now a Transformer Called Jolt”
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December 26th, 2008 at 7:32 am
“Electro-whips” — is this also a Volt feature?
“whirlwind of crackling energy.” I think I’d prefer a quiet one
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December 26th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Thanks Lyle and sorry for my truncated post yesterday.It was sent from my PDA from an uncommon location.
I’ll try to add the Jolt to my nephew”s old transformer collection.
Be well all,
JC
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Let’s all buy one of these toys. It’s success will prove that Chevy Volt will be a hit and it will attract investors to put money into it.
Lyle, where can we find this toy?
If you find a store, please give us a link.
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
#3,
I have enough crap in my house. What I don’t have is a volt in my driveway.
=)
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Notice his endurance is a 7!
I wonder if the makers of the new film know more about the Volt than we do?
Just joking of course but I also wonder how they came up with that number and will Jolt’s batteries fail him in the movie, will that be part of the plot?
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I want the Big Boy Toy – a REAL Volt!!!!!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Will the Jolt be working for Optimus Prime or Megatron???????
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:36 am
On second thought, Jolt should be a good guy fighting one of Megatrons minions, an evil Pria-sorus!!!!!!
Sorry………………………………
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Oh! I see the “Jolt” has a courage level of 9, but an intelligence level of 5. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but there does seem to be a subtle inference there.
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December 26th, 2008 at 9:19 am
It being the only “electrified” transformer I would think that they should give the Jolt a “Stealth” rating = 10…
this transformer could be the “sneaky” one…
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December 26th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Looks like the Jolt is “Made in China”. Checkout the website “the-arker.com”, which appears to be in Chinese.
Kind of a bad sign when the first Volt you can buy, is made in China.
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December 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I think it is good Idea to aim to make future generation of Volts cheaper, As far as range is considered, it is inevitable that they will have longer range, because competition will be having longer range and will advertising about there longer range.
Plus, the next generation batteries that come will have longer range, just like you cannot buy a 40 Gig Hard drive or 128 MB RAM today unless you want to buy an used one.
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December 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I’m waiting for the Volt to “transform” my driveway!
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Prius generates power in Massachusetts snowstorm
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/12/25/prius-generates-power-in-massachusetts-snowstorm/
“John Sweeney, a resident of Harvard, Massachusetts, lost power to his home for three whole days. That all sounds horrible, especially in such awful weather. Fortunately, Sweeney came up with a novel way to use his hybrid car by connecting a power inverter to his Prius’ battery and using the hybrid as a generator. According to reports, Mr. Sweeney was able to run “his refrigerator, freezer, TV, woodstove fan and several lights through his Prius, for three days, on roughly five gallons of gas.”"
GM has said that gen-1 Volt will have no “Out” plug.
Hello… GM? Anybody home?
Do you hear opportunity knocking?
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am
An ‘out’ plug would be awesome. There’s so much you could do with that.
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:57 am
The 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid has a 110V outlet on the center console. It is only rated to 150W though and carries the following restrictions:
The power outlet is not designed for the following electric appliances; they may not work properly:
• Cathode ray tube type televisions.
• Motor loads, such as vacuum cleaners, electric saws and other electric power tools, compressor-driven refrigerators, etc.
• Measuring devices, which process precise data, such as medical
equipment, measuring equipment, etc.
• Other appliances requiring an extremely stable power supply:
microcomputer-controlled electric blankets, touch sensor lamps, etc
I hope the Volt at least has some kind of similair system so you can power small items/chargers.
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:59 am
If the “Free Market” survives all the government’s benevolent intervention and the the corresponding malevolence of the ensuing unintended consequences, it will provide longer ranges and back-up power for houses and storage for solar cell arrays on the roof.
If you think about GM’s strategy for batteries, you will see that GM can make 4 of the 20 mile Volts for each 80 mile Volt(more or less). So as long as the battery is a pricey asset, GM wants to make and sell the maximum number of Volts. Thus the concentration on short range vehicles. The strategy is probably correct. The good news is that with modularity of the battery pack, we will have a group of after-market battery suppliers to choose from.
Even a Volt option without an integral ICE makes sense to me.
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December 26th, 2008 at 11:31 am
The first Silverado BAS hybrids had 110V outlets. Supposedly, contractors could run power tools from same. I don’t know if the upcoming 2 mode pickup will have them. Tahoe?
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December 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I note on the Yahoo news page this AM that GMAC is now magically a “bank holding company” Nice Xmas present for GM and Cerberus. Tap into the TARP free money bonanza. Yipee!!
I wonder if this will free up any credit for the dealers and the punters?
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December 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am
#19 noel park says “Tap into the TARP free money bonanza. Yipee!!”
GM and Cerberus had to give up control. GM will have 10% and Cerberus 30% — not sure of the exact numbers but something like that. How that will be implemented is unclear but hey, for the TARP, that’s not unusual. At least we know who is getting the money!
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December 26th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Toyota has announced a new BEV will debut at the Detroit Auto Show. Smart is rolling out a FourTwo BEV version. Still no E-REVs. Maybe Fisker will have be there?
#17 Shawn Marshall says “If you think about GM’s strategy for batteries, you will see that GM can make 4 of the 20 mile Volts for each 80 mile Volt(more or less).”
Maybe not. The battery pack costs, at most, $5K. Cutting it down might reduce the battery costs by at most one fourth but it would not reduce the price of the car by one-fourth. More like 5%.
Plus if you cut the size of the pack then the range would go down by a factor double the cut in the size of the pack. If you cut the size of the pack you cut the range, and as the range goes down the batteries would be subject to more charge/recharge cycles. This means you’d be able to use less of the pack — the Depth of Discharge would have to be even less than the 50% we’re looking at now. The end result would be something along the lines of having the range decrease by a factor of eight or ten if the pack was decreased by four.
With respect to the last point, doubling the pack from 16 kWh probably quadruples the range because you can have a greater DOD. (Further doubling doesn’t give you that same bump). For related reasons the A123 batteries, which are likely more able to stand up to abuse, might be able to deliver a range closer to 50 miles than to 40 miles.
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December 26th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@Tim 14
The dude plugged in a power inverter to his Prius and that makes the Prius special? HELLO!
You can do that with any car.
@16falcon 16
The Escape is a pretty good Hybrid, that’s my third alternative vehicle choice. They should make the inverter upgradable because 150W is pretty lame.
@Shawn Marshall 17
“Even a Volt option without an integral ICE makes sense to me.”
Totally agree and have been saying that for months. Volt minus the Ice and everyting associated, Fuel tank, exhaust manifold, muffler, etc, should reduce the weight by at least 400-500lbs thus increasing the range bay at least 8-10 miles at the same time reduce the cost of the vehicle for cheap as$es like me. =oP
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December 26th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@#17 Shawn Marshall & DonC
Doubling the batteries will not double your range. There’s a logarithmic increment you have to use to factor by. Adding batteries adds weight thus decrementing, logarithmically, range and acceleration.
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December 26th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
#21 DonC
“doubling the pack from 16 kWh probably quadruples the range because you can have a greater DOD”
______________________________________________________
I don’t follow you here DonC. I would not expect the % DOD to change by having a larger pack. I would expect a doubling of battery weight to increase range by 1.9ish, since more batteries = more weight to haul around as well, and you get diminishing returns on the extra weight.
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December 26th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
JOLT SMOLT JUST GIVE ME A VOLT
I hope they make the power cord universal
I read an article that said, chevron’s patent on the nic. battery runs out in 2015. question is, do we still need this battery and if so what would it take to get it back from Chevron or why in the name of humanity wont they just give it up, its Christmas
NO PLUG NO SALE, DBNGCMEMEV, LJGTVWOTR, (my house)=D~~~~(my volt)
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December 26th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
#22 CaptJackSparrow
Sorry to repeat your battery claim in #24. I didn’t update my screen before posting.
I think your 400-500 pound weight savings in #22 is low, I would expect the weight savings to be on the order of 750 lbs….but I’m not a gear head and so really don’t have a historical feel. 7 gallons of gas weighs 40 pounds, the engine will weigh around 300 (historical small engines), 100 for the generator (no historical reference), but then you start throwing in all the secondary systems like cooling, mounts, etc, and I would expect the weight to be closer to 750.
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December 26th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
@Cautious Fan 26
Not a gearhead either. Those were my “SWAG” at the numbers. (Scientific Wild As$ Guess).
Now speaking of the Generator/PMG of the Volt. Does ANYBODY have any idea of who makes it?
I am very interested in some specs because a 53KW generator/PMG to fit under the hood of a car along WITH an ICE is an engineering marvel to me. Even a 20KW PMG is very large, now a 53KW that small, I need so see for myself.
This is the part of the Volt I have reservations on.
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December 26th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
The Transformers,
More than meets the eye
Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the decepticons
The Transformers
Robots in disguise
The Transformers
More than meets the eye
The Transformers!
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December 26th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
LISTEN UP PEOPLE! (Allcaps guy weighing in)
Don’t you see? It’s a conspiracy to undermine the Volt!!!! (Multiple exclamation marks guy weighing in) What do electrical transformers do? THEY REDUCE VOLTAGE! They’re out to reduce the Volt! Don’t you see? Black Helicopters and the tri-lateral something something CONSPIRACY!
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December 26th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
#20 DonC said,
#19 noel park says “Tap into the TARP free money bonanza. Yipee!!”
GM and Cerberus had to give up control. GM will have 10% and Cerberus 30% — not sure of the exact numbers but something like that. How that will be implemented is unclear but hey, for the TARP, that’s not unusual. At least we know who is getting the money!
================
Good for GM on the GMAC bailout (and my own selfish desiers).
Overall I think breaking the rules for applications to be a bank holding company is a really dangerous/expensive move for the fed overall.
It sets a precedence for others to follow. Good luck getting any debtholders to swap debt for equity at any of the other companies looking to become a bank holding company now.
It is 10 times worse in GM’s case, there is about zero percent chance they can get any of GM’s bondholders to do the debt to equity swap now, or get the UAW to budge even a smidge (why would they after watching what has gone down the last month).
I’m not worried about the gov’t pulling the plug on GM in March when they don’t get the swap, clearly they are not letting GM go under…successful plan or not (so thats good for us here with our selfish reasons), but I fear that the cost for gov’t to ‘bailout’ the economy just tripled with actions like this.
They aren’t just supporting the companys that comply now, they are supporting those that don’t and all their bondholders and the unions…a much pricer affair.
The deficit for ‘09 is going to be astronomical.
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December 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I wonder how this ties in with authorizing the 2nd half of the TARP $? I hear a lot of posturing about demanding more (any?) accountability for how the money is spent.
Awhile ago I had cynically said that I bet that the whole 700B would be blown before Bush/Paulson leave office. Then I began to hope that Congress might hold on to the 2nd half until the new administration checked in. This is making me start to doubt again.
I mean, there is no more money available to fund this until the 2nd half comes through, right?
BTW, is Henry Paulson now the “car czar”, LOL?
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December 26th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Why is this posted?
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December 26th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
#30 Statik
And the “moral hazards” begin to become apparent. And I thought THIS TIME for sure would be different.
I laughed when Bush said GM would have to pay back the loans in March if they don’t have a plan for profitability. It’s an obvious bluff and everyone knows it, including the bondholders and UAW. You aren’t going to get concessions out of them with a hollow threat. Bush just kicked the problem down the road and added 15 billion in sunk costs. Thanks Mr. Free Marketeer. I hope the Obamasiah pushes for a structured bankruptcy like he mentions in the link below. Of course, you can never be sure with a politician…
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_team_considering_bankruptcy_plan_for_1121.html
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December 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
The Jolt.
Armed with a powerful lobbying arm capable of stirring up fear and massing politicians for attack on lightly defended stockpiles of appropriated public cash.
Warranty fulfillment sold separately.
Spare battery not included (though included in the price)
Friend or Foe identification system detects the presence of innocent pedestrians and emits soothing simulated engine noise to warn of approaching stealth vehicle. Threats will be blasted with debilitating levels of low frequency sound (known as bass), once a stealthy approach has been made. GM is not responsible for noise pollution
______________________________________________________
Sorry for the cynicism. I just need to get back on thread.
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December 26th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
#24 Cautious Fan says “I don’t follow you here DonC. I would not expect the % DOD to change by having a larger pack.”
GM is using the DOD to protect the battery, and this decreases the range. Keeping in mind that charging twice at 25% is like discharging/charging once at 50%, you can do a back of the napkin calculation about how many discharge/recharge cycles you’d have to do for a given pack. For 12K miles per year, for the Volt with a 16 kWh pack you’d have a range of 80 miles and 150 cycles. Over 10 years that’s 1500 cycles, which is more than GM would want to risk. Hence they only use half the pack, which forces you to the ICE after 40 miles, which in turn cuts down the charge/discharge cycles, which protects the battery from being toasted before 10 years. (The A123 pack should be able to do 1700 cycles but GM doesn’t want to bet on that at this pont).
Now assume you double the pack to 32 kWh. This implies a 160 mile range. Over 12K miles that would be 75 discharge/recharge cycles, which means that over 10 years you’re looking at 750 cycles. No big deal, the battery can tolerate this without a problem. Since the battery can tolerate all the cycles you will throw at it, you don’t have to limit the DOD to 50%. You can use 100%.
A 32 kWh pack has only twice the energy of a 16 kWh pack. However, the range for a 32 kWh pack with a 100% DOD would be 160 miles, or four times the range with a 16 kWh pack with a 50% DOD. (It works the other way too — my point was that for a 4 kWh pack you’d need to use 25% of it, assuming it would work at all).
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December 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
The Volt is just a TOY.
Mama says look to TOYOTA for true EV innovation !
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December 26th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Cautious Fan — In #35 above I meant to say “that charging at 25% twice is not the same as discharging/charging once at 50%.” (I left off the “not”). Unlike the old NiCad batteries, the Lithium batteries do not like to be fully charged and discharged. So two discharge/charge cycles at 50% would not cut their life as short as one discharge/charge cycle at 100%. But once the number of expected charge/discharge cycles falls below some number it isn’t that big of a deal since the battery will last in any event.
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December 26th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
DOD ?
Since GM has used the DOD acronym to identify the “Displacement On Demand” feature in their Two-Mode hybrids, it doesn’t make any sense to have it mean something entirely different for Volt.
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
#36 I wish they were actually innovating. They made the Prius and they now seem like they don’t want anything to supplant their precious synergy drive technology, hence their resistance thus far to the idea of series hybrids. I hope the Volt spurs them, and all other automakers, to reasses their resistance to EVs (with or without range extenders).
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Just wait till you see the custom Corvette in the new movie…
“Autobots… ROLL OUT!”
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
BYD now releasing 2011. One year delay.
***********************************************************
BYD will begin selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles outside of China in 2011 rather than 2010, according to BYD chairman Wang Chuan Fu.
BYD, which is 10 percent owned by US investor Warren Buffett, originally aimed to sell the hybrid cars abroad in 2010 but Wang would not give any reasons for the delay. The firm officially launched the F3DM on Monday and said it will sell a total of 50 units of the hybrid cars to the Shenzhen municipal government and China Construction Bank.
The F3DM plug-in hybrid (earlier post) is available in 14 Chinese cities at 149,800 yuan ($21,890)—approximately double the price of a similar-sized gasoline-powered car in China. BYD is targeting corporate buyers first. The company is also in talks with state power grid operators on establishing recharging facilities.
Wang told reporters the price was a bit high but it was lower than the same type of cars on sales in overseas markets. “If the government can provide supportive measures such as tax incentives, the price of the cars can be reduced to the level that the public can afford,” Wang said
“http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/12/byd-will-push-b.html”
delete quote marks. Edit: wrong link hehe.
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December 26th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
#27 CaptJackSparrow Says: “Now speaking of the Generator/PMG of the Volt. Does ANYBODY have any idea of who makes it?”
————————————————————————————–
By PMG, I assume you mean “Permanent Magnet Generator”.
Will the Volt use a Permanent Magnet Generator? Has this been confirmed? As power increases, inductive motors become more viable. I would think the same is true of generators.
The generator rotor could use magnets or inductive coils. Has GM indicated which?
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December 26th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
#30 statik,
I guess I’m more optimistic. What Bush did with the auto makers is essentially “punt” the ball to the Obama administration. I’m assuming Obama will be pragmatic and do what it takes to make GM viable.
Obama has consistently surprised the left. Just look to his days as president of the Harvard Law Review. I don’t believe he will let the UAW get away without significant concessions.
Besides, I believe the UAW, bond holders, and everyone else knows something has to give. They just needed time to work out all the details. If they can’t get that done by March 31st, GM deserves to go C7.
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
#43 Dave G said,
#30 statik, I guess I’m more optimistic. What Bush did with the auto makers is essentially “punt” the ball to the Obama administration. I’m assuming Obama will be pragmatic and do what it takes to make GM viable.
Obama has consistently surprised the left. Just look to his days as president of the Harvard Law Review. I don’t believe he will let the UAW get away without significant concessions.
Besides, I believe the UAW, bond holders, and everyone else knows something has to give. They just needed time to work out all the details. If they can’t get that done by March 31st, GM deserves to go C7.
==============================
The UAW and bond holders do know something has to give…and thats the gov’t.
The UAW stood firm in the face of eminent bankruptcy (within hours if Bush didn’t say he was going to raid TARP before the free market opened on them the next day) against congress….and the gov’t backed down, and did what they said they wouldn’t (White House involvement/use TARP)
The bond holders stood firm against swapping debt for equity, on not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 deadlines for GMAC to be a bank holding company and eminent bankruptcy if they did not….and the gov’t backed down, and did what they said they wouldn’t (change the rules to let GMAC be a bank holding company).
Both the UAW and bond holders showed they have stones…big time. The gov’t has zero power now to get them to do anything.
Obama only has two choices:
1.) bailout them out and let the UAW keep their contract and let the bond holders….bond hold
2.) let them go bankrupt
The UAW/bond holders will believe no bluff or threat of bankruptcy, they have both proven their willingness to go to go all the way to the last minute of the last hour…and then just let the whole thing collapse.
Now the gov’t has 41.4 billion (17.4 bailout +7 billion to GMAC + 17 billion in federally guaranteed debt, under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program to be doled out by GMAC) invested in them, that they would stand to lose in 12 weeks if they don’t keep shelling out the cash…they have zero position of power.
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December 26th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
This may be the only affordable Volt for a few years..
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December 26th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
#44 statik says “Both the UAW and bond holders showed they have stones…big time. The gov’t has zero power now to get them to do anything. ”
I think you’re missing the forest for the trees. The government has all the cards, not the least of which is that they get to set the rules. Either the Obama admin gets what it wants from all the parties or: (1) it gets special legislation naming its “car czar” equivalent as the trustee and giving the bankruptcy court a very short time to render a decision and then forces bankruptcy; or (2) it gets Congress to pass pass legislation approving its recommendations directly. Either way works. They are hardly limited to the two options you’ve laid out.
As for showing that they have stones, there was no real threat once Bush told the Republican Senators that he would act if they didn’t. A lot of leverage disappeared after that. Yet even then a deal could have been worked out had the the Republicans been interested in getting one rather than in union busting.
Not sure about the GMAC deal. AFAIK the restructuring has to take place before GMAC becomes a bank holding company, and the big argument is over how much money GM and Cerberus will pony up. That is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination.
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December 27th, 2008 at 12:05 am
hi Mark #44,
“This may be the only affordable Volt for a few years.”
_________________
The 2010 $32,500 Volt is just the beginning.
The buzz on the street indicates that for most future car buyers it’s not a question of “if” they will go electric. It’s a question of “when”.
=D~
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December 27th, 2008 at 2:27 am
#35 DonC
Keeping in mind that charging twice at 25% is like discharging/charging once at 50%
____________________________________________________
You sure about that? Wikipedia says the following regarding LION’s “Furthermore, they may be irreversibly damaged if discharged below a certain voltage.”
It sounds to me like the effect is definitely not linear, though you seem to have a better understanding of batteries.
____________________________________________________
#46 DonC
The government has all the cards, not the least of which is that they get to set the rules
_____________________________________________________
Yeah the gov’t has all the cards, they can make up rules as the go (oh the joy of unlimited power). Problem is, gov’t is composed of people with political interests and so can be manipulated. Unions donate millions in campaign donations to Democrats. You don’t suppose they’ll be calling in any favors? That’s how politics works, both parties. Donations yield a nice ROI.
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December 27th, 2008 at 8:27 am
#48 Cautious Fan Says: “Unions donate millions in campaign donations to Democrats. You don’t suppose they’ll be calling in any favors? That’s how politics works, both parties. Donations yield a nice ROI.”
————————————————————————————–
This is exactly why the Obama campaign didn’t take any money from Washington lobbyists. This was a major departure from the normal fund raising path.
Instead, he used the internet. Obama got something like 3 million people to donate to his campaign over the internet. The vast majority of donations were less than $200. The number of people donating broke all records.
Obama is the first president that isn’t owned by lobbyists.
What’s more, Obama has consistently surprised the left. Back in the early 90’s when he was president of the Harvard Law Review, progressive liberals were often bitter about Obama’s decisions, while conservative federalists seemed to have nothing but praise for Obama. See here for details:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02s1402q48c&continuous=1
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December 27th, 2008 at 10:17 am
#46 DonC
#44 statik says “Both the UAW and bond holders showed they have stones…big time. The gov’t has zero power now to get them to do anything. ”
I think you’re missing the forest for the trees. The government has all the cards, not the least of which is that they get to set the rules. Either the Obama admin gets what it wants from all the parties or: (1) it gets special legislation naming its “car czar” equivalent as the trustee and giving the bankruptcy court a very short time to render a decision and then forces bankruptcy; or (2) it gets Congress to pass pass legislation approving its recommendations directly. Either way works. They are hardly limited to the two options you’ve laid out.
As for showing that they have stones, there was no real threat once Bush told the Republican Senators that he would act if they didn’t. A lot of leverage disappeared after that. Yet even then a deal could have been worked out had the the Republicans been interested in getting one rather than in union busting.
Not sure about the GMAC deal. AFAIK the restructuring has to take place before GMAC becomes a bank holding company, and the big argument is over how much money GM and Cerberus will pony up. That is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination.
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I don’t think so, but time will tell.
I don’t think anyone, (let alone the UAW/bond holders) think for one second that Obama will let them go bankrupt on March 31st, 2009 if they don’t capitulate.
We are to believe he is going to hardline them and let ‘American auto’ go under in the first 9 weeks of his administration, while at the same time introducing the biggest bailout/spending package since FDR?
His MAIN talking point is that he will create 2.5 (now 3 million) jobs when he takes office. Everyone keeps saying if Detroit auto goes under it will cost the economy 3 million jobs? So how can anyone believe him…talk about leverage disappearing. (unless you believe he is going to let Detroit auto go under, then create 6 million jobs, lol)
Anyway, doesn’t matter…we both have a different opinion…we are coming at it from different sides. The fact is that the free market is no longer involved here and that means hundreds of different scenarios can play out…rather than the solitary result if gov’t wasn’t involved.
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December 27th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
#49 DaveG
Obama is the first president that isn’t owned by lobbyists
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Lay off the kool aid man. Seriously? I’m no campaign finance expert, but that sounds like a line straight from a campaign add. I though McCain took the financing high road by going for public financing, and Obama did a little flip-flop on that issue. Not trying to say one is better or worse here…..that’s just what I remember happening.
There’s a lot more to the gov’t then the Obamesiah. Congress and the senate definitely receive the donations, and they write the laws. He signs them. So even if there is somehow a pure and upright executive come to save us from our sins, the lobbyists still hold tremendous power over what happens.
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December 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I just wanted to say that I came up with this idea a few weeks ago when Lyle asked us to come up with ways to promote the Volt but apparently someone came up with the idea first.
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December 29th, 2008 at 1:48 am
Are lithium-ion batteries made on Cybertron????
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December 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
It may be called the “JOLT”, but I see by the above pictures it still has the name “VOLT” on the front.
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