Data Point - Electric Obama - Granite Grok

Data Point – Electric Obama

GM EV-1I’ve blogged a number of times on how badly Obama’s promise to transform our car buying behaviors (as that’s what Progressives do with their I know better than you what is best for you “tell”. And then we, who make up the Free Market decision makers (aka, telling the Central Planners to go….do something else) actually told the auto economy our choices. And given that this was his last year to get to that Million Electric Car end point, I am happy to anounce #FAIL:

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama predicted that there would be “a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”  But only 382,176 plug-in electrified vehicles (PEVs) have been sold in the U.S. since 2008, according to Hybridcars.com. That’s just 38 percent of Obama’s one million vehicle goal.  And although auto sales in the U.S. were at an all-time-high last year with 17.47 million sold, electric vehicles actually lost market share, dropping from 3.47 percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. to 2.87 percent, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA).

But of course, Americans MUST have heeded his call to be more efficient (via the EPA / DOT jacking up mandatory MPG standards – yet another Administrative Law decree (instead of Congressionally pass legislation)), right?  Er 

Americans bought 9.7 percent more pickup trucks last year than in 2014, with Ford’s F-Series remaining the top-selling vehicle for the ninth year in a row. 780,354 of them were sold in 2015, which was 14.6 percent more than the 753,851 Ford pickups sold in 2014.

And I do love this “poke’em in the eye AGAIN!” moment:

However, despite a massive amount of federal spending on electric vehicles that is expected to reach $7.9 billion by 2019 and generous tax rebates up to $7,500, sales of many PEVs declined last year, according to sales data compiled by Good Car Bad Car.

And the post goes on to talk about individual car models and their up and downs.  But the stat that sticks out is that EVs, with with GINORMOUS spending of other peoples’ money by politicians and bureaucrats that are absolutely convinced everyone of us actually buying cars is wrong is that 2.87 percent of car sales.

Obama and those of his ilk (all about control) and the environmentalists are totally obsessed with “efficiency” and MPG (or MPGe).  They have forgotten that people will take that into account but rarely is the major determinate of why THEY buy a car.  Looks, performance, color, utility – it is always a multi-dimensional decision.  For me and given where I live out here in the boonies and on the side of a mountain, I have to have a 4X4.  I also need room for the gear that I haul around for GraniteGrok when we do a road trip.  The little tin cans that our Progressive Masters would allow us to have would get 50MPG or better – how much snow can you plow with a SmartCar?  Or a Bug or Mini?  And when it gets cold, it. gets. cold.  Kinda trashes the battery systems.

Remember, choice is the quantization of Freedom – the more choices you can make for yourself, the freer you are.  Socialism is when you have a Government decided market.  Which gives you more choices – a Free Market or one steered by Obama?  Or Bernie (who has already said that we “don’t need” the variety of deodarents that our “individual makes the choice” marketplace now gives us.

(H/T: CNSNews)

 

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