Chevrolet Volt Energizes the Rich
Jose Mesa
José Mesa Auto Wholesale, LLC
The Chevrolet Volt is far from being the everyday driver for the average American. In fact only 7,671 were sold in 2011 which is just short of General Motors goal of 10,000 vehicles. It has an average price of over $40K which immediately eliminates many buyers. The average Volt buyer earns about $170K per year so I guess you can call them rich. As of 2011 you could get $7500 federal and $1500 Oregon tax credits to assist with your purchase. This is a nice chunk of change and is about 25% of the overall cost of the car!
Electric vehicles as well as hybrids are here to help with overall fuel consumption and the dependence of foreign oil. This of course is a good thing to many but in the end I would like to pose this question. Should those that make far less than those that can afford these vehicles pay taxes to the federal government so that they can turn around and give them to the rich as tax credits to buy these types of vehicles? I am not picking on Chevrolet Volt but using it as an example. The Nissan Leaf falls into my point as well even though it has an average cost around the low $30K’s.
It is President Obama’s goal to get 1 million electric vehicles on the road within four years. At current figures this amounts to $7.5 billion in subsidy that is paid by the US taxpayer. Maybe seeing this in long form might make a grander statement. That’s $7,500,000,000. This is a lot of money regardless of how you look at it! If the rich or anyone for that matter wants one of these electric vehicles then let them buy it on their own without the subsidies.
I am all for advancing technology but I really do not think these subsidies are needed on vehicles that cost this much money since it really is not helping most Americans. If anything let’s stay on track to build vehicles that get great miles per gallon for the majority of Americans including low and medium income households that can afford them. Going green is great but putting green bills in the pockets of rich Americans is not what it is all about!
This article was written by José Pinomesa who is the owner of José Mesa Auto Wholesale, LLC. JMAW is a retail auto dealer in Portland who has been selling new and used cars and trucks since 1992. For more information please visit www.josemesa.com.
Disclaimer: Articles featured on Oregon Report are the creation, responsibility and opinion of the authoring individual or organization which is featured at the top of every article.