U.S. News - "In Defense of the Chevy Volt"

[AmpOhm]

A U.S. News & World Report article about the Volt that came out yesterday discussing the Volt in the news and in politics.

The first line: "Cars don't usually vote in elections, but one vehicle is playing an unusual role in this year's presidential campaign: the Chvrolet Volt."

The last line: "What a bunch of dummies. Don't they know the Volt is crappy?"

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/05/08/in-defense-of-the-chevy-volt

[dax777]

Excellent article, thanks for sharing AmpOhm...its always great to see positive news about the Volt...we owners know the Volt is a great car and fun to drive, articles like this help the general public really get to know the Volt, at those that can think for themselves and not listen to talking heads that have a political agenda no matter who gets hurt in process..

[Steverino]

Now that there are more Volt owners, there are more of them in Comments sharing real world experiences. When faced with real owners with hands on experience that contradicts willful ignorance and flat out lies, the trolls tend to fall back on "Obama bailout" and name calling.

In related news, Mitt Romney is now claiming credit for the auto rebound. Nope, I'm not kidding. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelin...lout-say-what/ Perhaps soon he will be buying a Volt for one of his vacation homes?

[Jason M. Hendler]

I do take exception to the line "And price usually comes down as production scales up, a basic law of economics that Romney, the multimillionaire financier, must have once known and simply forgotten."

Mitt Romney and his contemporaries follow old school business approaches, which keep companies, industries and economies stable. Silicon Valley venture capitalists follow a high risk / high yield business strategy, by which you dump a ton of money on disruptive technologies for the purpose of leap-frogging competing technologies from incumbant market leaders. The Silicon Valley venture capitalists succeed in 1 out of every 10 investments, but the payoffs are often 20X higher or more. Mitt Romney and his contemporaries wouldn't accept that high level of risk, which is OK, and more appropriate in his line of work, as well as more appropriate for government operations as well. It is true that the Volt is ahead of its time, which is why it is more like a Silicon Valley venture capitalist strategy, and just as with Silicon Valley premium products from Apple and others, it requires early adopters willing to pay a premium to have the latest and greatest technologies.

These types of strategies are outside Mitt Romney's comfort zone, so he is sincere about the Volt being ahead of its time, but the Silicon Valley venture capitalist strategy mainstreams these new products at a very accelerated rate using a ton of money, so the time of the Volt and similar vehicles will be here very soon, likely by 2015. Without the Silicon Valley venture capitalist strategy, the Volt's technology would have taken decades to mainstream. With this strategy, in will happen within a decade.

I don't blame Mitt Romney for not being familiar / comfortable with the Silicon Valley venture capitalist approach to mainstreaming disruptive technology. Solyndra, Beacon Power, etc. all show how government isn't the optimal place to drive such strategies, and it may be better to avoid such practices again, unless we hit another crisis as we saw in 2008. Hopefully, the existance of the Chevy Volt and all other high mileage vehicles will help us avoid those types of oil shocks that cripple economies.

[dax777]

I want a photo of that one...

[JamesMcQuaid]

Right on Steverino!

In related news, Mitt Romney is now claiming credit for the auto rebound. Nope, I'm not kidding. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelin...lout-say-what/ Perhaps soon he will be buying a Volt for one of his vacation homes?

Reality check here:
"Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" by Mitt Romney
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/op...mney.html?_r=1

[AZ EV Driver]

In related news, Mitt Romney is now claiming credit for the auto rebound. Nope, I'm not kidding. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelin...lout-say-what/ Perhaps soon he will be buying a Volt for one of his vacation homes?

Don't you wish that every time they tell a lie their nose would grow longer? We could determine elections with a tape measure instead of having to endure all the negative ads for what seems like 4 years every 4 years.

VIN # B0985

[drbruns]

In related news, Mitt Romney is now claiming credit for the auto rebound. Nope, I'm not kidding. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelin...lout-say-what/ Perhaps soon he will be buying a Volt for one of his vacation homes?

Anybody ever seen a Volt in an elevator?

[volt-me]

Great article, thanks for sharing it. I also posted a positive comment on the Volt and the article after the article. It is interesting that most of the negative comments are name calling and the same old stuff that the article refutes.

Thanks to the magazine for writing a more factual article.

[DonC]

Mitt Romney and his contemporaries follow old school business approaches, which keep companies, industries and economies stable.

Completely agree that Romney has no clue about technology. Completely disagree that private equity provides much of anything. Private equity is to business like house flipping is to building. You find a target, buy it cheap, toss some paint over the termite damage, pretty up the balance sheet, and foist it off on a bigger fool. I have friends in private equity. Wouldn't trust any of them because they have no ethics.

Venture capital has its share of issues but seemingly in spite of themselves they occasionally deliver value. Private equity? They deliver first to themselves and then to their investors, adding little to the economy except in the rare situation.

What they do best is lobby for ridiculous tax breaks that lets them treat ordinary income as capital gains.