$41,000 Chevy Volt being sold at a loss! Real cost is being hidden in undisclosed location from publ

Detroit Free Press business writers Mark Phelan, Chrissie Thompson and Brent Snavel put on their Obama knee pads and went to work writing a propaganda piece for Government motors' Chevy Volt. Perhaps unintentionally though, they let the cat out of the bag that the Chevy Volt isn't making GM one red cent in profit, and that it's very likely that it is being sold at a significant loss that taxpayers won't know for some time. From the freep: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Chevy Volt that the Obama regime approved us write about. The question/Obamunist answer piece is fully 11 pages long. But they slipped up in 2 places. Here's the first on page 6:

Q: Did the government force GM to build it?

A: GM began work on the Volt in 2006, long before the government assistance that saved the company. The presidential auto task force pointed out that the Volt won't make money for at least the first few years. GM told the government the technology was too important and the Volt program had to continue.

Best case scenario: the Volt is being sold at cost. The reality: it's being sold at a big loss and the taxpayers that have been footing the bill via the bailout and now via a tax abatement that will cost taxpayers some $42 billion over the next few years and that the media isn't reporting (Detroit News spews Obama propoganda: Feds to recoup $36 billion in bailout money, fail to mention GM receiving $45 billion tax furlough). Evidence that the Volt is being sold at a loss comes on page 4:

Q: How many batteries does the Volt have? What would be the cost to replace them? -- reader Michael Douglas

A: The Volt has one battery pack, assembled in Brownstown Township. It's 5.5 feet long, shaped like a T, and weighs 435 pounds. That battery contains 288 cells. The flat, laminated, 5-by-7-inch cells each weighs a little less than a pound, according to Prabhakar Patil, CEO of Troy-based Compact Power. The cells currently come from LG Chem in South Korea, but Compact Power, an LG Chem subsidiary, will start making them in Holland, Mich., in 2012.

Peterson declined to provide the current cost of the battery. For now, all you need to know is that GM will foot the cost of repairing or replacing the battery during the time covered by the transferable warranty. Once drivers start nearing the end of the warranty, GM expects the battery to cost less than it does today, Peterson said, as the technology becomes more common.

We can glean some information on the cost from a prior post of mine back in September: Stimulus: Granholm, Obama celebrate giving $368+ million to MI plant to produce $33,000 car batteries. The key snippet:

Costs are high. The government has estimated that a battery with a 100-mile range costs about $33,000, ...

If that's the government estimate, you know the costs are even higher. Try $45,000. The Volt gets about half that mileage, but we can't just cut the cost in half because 1) the control system has to be there regardless of size, and 2) an active vapor-compression refrigeration system is still going to be operating because of the tremendous heat generated by the batteries when discharging. So for the Volt, the battery cost with supporting subsystems will be around $30,000. As a point of reference, GM is selling the non-hybrid version of the Volt - the Chevy Cruze - at $16,000. That's right - the batteries in the Volt costs twice the entire non-hybrid vehicle. From that, one could estimate that the true cost of producing the Volt is $46,000. Add a profit margin and the Volt should be selling for $50,000, not $41,000. You could buy three Chevy Cruzes for that plus some luxury options on each.

The Volt is being subsidized at least twice by the federal government taxpayer: once at the front end (production - possibly as much as $9,000) and once at the back end ($7,500 purchase tax credit). Only in the world of government is this considered a winner.

Previously:
Sen Carl Levin (D-MI): Chevy Volt (that hasn't sold a single unit, fills up on coal and the feds have to pay you $7,500 to buy one) proves "doubters" wrong
PJM Article: Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Actually Get Only 23, 25 MPG
Good grief: COAL-powered 2011 Chevrolet Volt named Green Car of the Year
Nobel Peace Prize given to Obama's expensive, coal-guzzling car that the government has to pay you $7,500 to buy and hasn't sold one unit yet on open market
Detroit Free Press clueless that the Chevy Volt is a hybrid
Video of Granholm: Criticizing the Chevy Volt is un-American!
Top auto supplier CEO: Government too focused on electric vehicles, "ignoring" other technologies
Video: 'The Truth About Cars' Editor Edward Niedermeyer on why the Chevy Volt is a $41,000 electric lemon
That $41,000 price tag for the Chevy Volt? Could be $61,000
Robert Gibbs: Hey - I bet Rush Limbaugh doesn't drive one of those awesome GM F-150s
Granholm to Congress: Put battery incentives in energy bill because it will do for jobs nationally what it did for jobs in Michigan
Obama comes to Michigan, touts money he's giving to KOREAN battery plant to create jobs at $504,667 each
Irony: Michigan touts electric cars for economic growth, but denies permits for power plants to charge them
Detroit News: Buyers won't recoup extra cost of electric vehicles, but electric vehicles will save Michigan's economy or something
Confirmed: Chevy Volt 230 mpg claim is bs
Side-splitting headline of the day: GM touts Volt with 230 mpg city rating (by using Enron accounting methods)
Another Plug-In Hybrid False Mileage/Energy Savings Claim
Government report: electric cars won't reduce carbon emissions and likely create more
UNTRUE! - Enron Accounting on the 100 mpg Hummer H3
DetNews: 12 projects expected to create 2,900 jobs

http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/12/41000-chevy-volt-being-sold-at-loss.html

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