President Obama recently said that he’d buy a Chevy Volt in five years, after he concludes his second term in the White House:
“[A]t GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit, where I got to get inside a brand new Chevy Volt fresh off the line—even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it., Obama recently told the United Auto Workers union in Washington, D.C. “But I liked sitting in it. It was nice. I'll bet it drives real good. And five years from now when I’m not president anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself.”
But Obama might not get his wish. “General Motors has told 1,300 employees at its Detroit Hamtramck that they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart,” the Detroit Free Press reported.
Even more ironic: The very auto plant the president mentioned in the speech—Hamtramck plant in Detroit—is the one being downsized. “Around 1,300 workers at GM's Hamtramck, Mich., factory where the Volt is built will be out of work between March 19 and April 23, a spokesman said,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
It seems entirely possible that the only thing keeping consumers away from the Chevy Volt is its price point. It’s basically a $41,000 Honda Civic with better mpg, a quieter ride, and an upgraded interior. So the big brains at GM have decided to address the price issue by making a more expensive version of the Volt: the Cadillac ELR.
Yesterday I pointed to President Obama’s alarmingly statist“reasonable” view of his government’s handling of Chrysler and GM. But in focusing on Obama’s ideology, I missed the bigger story. To refresh, here’s what Obama said: