Matt Drudge's Idiotic, Uninformed War Against The Chevy Volt
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Recently named by Gizmodo as the second most viral person on the Internet (ahead of Ashton Kutcher!), Matt Drudge is the go-to guy for headlines guaranteed to feed red meat to the right-hand side of the U.S. political spectrum.
And he hates electric cars. Boy, does that man hate anything with a plug.
And if it's the "failed" Chevy Volt, from the bailed-out "Government Motors," that goes double.
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UPDATE: The article you're reading was originally published Monday, December 20. Neatly proving our point, a day later, Drudge posted not one but two new anti-Volt headlines.
Amusingly, one is a video clip of Neil Cavuto of the Fox "News" Channel "interviewing" an "expert" from the notorious National Legal and Policy Center, which produces "studies" and "reports" with a bias against GM in general and the Volt specifically.
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With a graphic design that smacks of 1998 and a great deal of bold-faced and underlined type, CAPITAL LETTERS, exclamation points !!!, and bright red copy, his eponymous Drudge Report is hard on the eyes but undeniably successful in propounding a very specific world view.
Also see: Chevy Volt Owner Goes Head-To-Head With Fox News, Survives
Closet secrets
Unfortunately, one of the several skeletons hiding deep in the Drudge closet is that his Volt headlines are monumentally flawed jeremiads that don't come close to qualifying as journalism.
Often using a single fact, conspicuously free of context--whether it concerns the global auto industry, consumer car-buying behavior, technology rollouts, or just plain old accuracy--most of them are meant to do only one thing: tear down the Volt to an audience that believes it's a failure and an example of everything that's wrong with the world today.
Oh, and it's all Obama's fault, by the way.
A simple topic search shows that Drudge has published a total of 12 headlines about the Volt, comprising links to 10 stories (the last two stories were repeated a day or two later). So let's go through them.
Ancient news
The most recent pair feel the most desperate, and by far the most laughable. Under the banner headline, "AUDI Chief on Chevy Volt: 'A car for idiots'," Drudge links to a story covering Audi chief Johan de Nysschen's comment about people who buy Volts.
There's just one problem: That comment was made more than two years ago, well before journalists had driven the production car, any actual Volts had gone on sale, and any cars had been purchased by real live--and very eager--human beings.
That's called grasping at straws.
"Gov't Motors," so very 2009
Then there are a pair of links to an Associated Press story discussing the potential failure mechanism that allowed a battery pack to catch fire--three weeks after the fact--after it and the Volt that contained it were destroyed in an NHTSA crash test.
Drudge's headline there? "BAILOUT: Gov't Motors offers to buy back Chevy Volts".
That's technically accurate (the "Government Motors" slur aside), though you would have to read fully nine paragraphs down to find the news that CEO Dan Akerson said GM would buy back Volts from any nervous owner.
Since then, GM says, "a few dozen" owners have requested loaner cars or asked GM to repurchase their Volts. Hardly a rush for the exits.
Good heavens, an accurate headline
Following that are two comparatively accurate headlines (though again with the "Govt' Motors" thing--isn't that just a little 2009, Matt?).
They cover GM's loaner-car offer to Volt owners and the news of a second battery pack fire, though you'd never know that fire was in a battery pack that had deliberately been wrecked. In a lab. By government employees.
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Journalistic Slander: intentionally disseminating misinformation or false information as if it were factual to the public. (or information one knew or should have known to be wrong [meaning, did a minimum of homework])
It looks more like a total waste of money that results in so few sales it will have virtually zero impact on oil imports "green house gases" or anything else.
Next year at this time, when U.S. volume is up to 45,000 cars, and at least some of the demand from California retail buyers, the General Electric fleet order, etc., has been satisfied, then let's revisit the issue. Right now, there are waiting lists for the Volt in at least some regions.
I haven't seen those, mind you, and I cover the field fairly carefully. But I'm sure you have, so do please enlighten us by providing links to some of them ...
Failing that, I reiterate: It's far too early to call the Volt a failure. Three thousand unsold of 12,000 built is called "inventory". Don't believe everything you hear.
Reading this story it looks like Drudge had inflamatory titles in all the posts, yet had accurate facts. OK. Spin sucks, but facts are facts. In the last story, the garage fires, they jumped to a conclusion in a story, which real journalists never do. While I'm not defending Drudge, I am trying to understand what the point of this is. A right leaning news site published accurate stories with inflamatory titles against a vehicle that gets $7,500 tax dollars and is built by a "bailed out" automaker? Again, I'm not taking sides just want to understand where the non-political issue is.
GM's biggest failing with the Volt was not explaining just how different it is from a conventional automobile.
VOLT converts energy back and forth at great losses a number of times...there is nothing inexpensive or economical about the VOLT design and future repairs to this highly complex engineering showpiece are going to be very very high.
GM tried to get the jump on the electric car market and wound up spening 1400 days getting it on the market, a market that looks to better and vastly cheaper designs now being offered by a large number of manufacturers.
The "Prius c" will take the world by storm and Toyota will never look back...the "c" is only the beginning.
New battery technology is blossoming.
The problem of cheap hydrogen has to be solved first.
The energy to produce hydrogen is more expensive than the energy that hydrogen produces...get it?
Not many engineers here today, lots of political wackiness however.
On a personal note, I drive a Volkswagen TDI that get 50 MPG, now that's GREEN!
Possibly the dumbest comment was your claim that the government put billions into GM for the Volt. GM was developing the Volt years before it was bailed out and most of the money went elsewhere, anyway, but you're clearly not a fan of facts.
Not popular? Is that why it's won so many awards and there are waiting lists? And if you think your TDI is better for emissions than the Volt, try a little emissions research, too.
Typical ignorant nonsense.
The topic was the Volt, not your opinions on the President overall. You claimed that the govt, spent billions on the Volt, which is just nonsense. rather than commenting on you being inaccurate, you choose to call names.
You did claim that the TDI is green, clearly implying that they are greener than a Volt, which again, is nonsense.
It appears that you're the only person here who still can't get it that the Volt and others aren't meant to be big volume-sellers. The suppliers aren't there, OEMs lose on every sale, etc...
It wasn't for sale for most of the year in 43 states, so we'll see in 2012.
And learn to write...
Detroit won World War II. Packard built rolls royce merlin engines won air superiority over Germany. American made trucks gave the Soviet Red Army the mobility they needed to push their communications forward over a thousand miles from their supply base.
America, in 2006 consumed about 17 million vehicles. You are suggesting GIVING most of that market share to foreign car companies ALL of which had benefited from government Industrial Policies, (in Korea it was against the law to import any vehicle prior to 1987) ALL imports are built by union hands, by the way.
That's why right wingers are called the Wrecking Crew.
You're worse than Drudge....
Jack Rickard
http://www.EVTV.me
Feel free to re-read about the NC fire, too, since again it was the fire marshal, not GM who placed blame 100% elsewhere.
If you want to accuse someone of professional bias, how about some actual examples, since yours here are patently ridiculous?
If pointing out that, contrary to what was claimed, the fire marshals in two states stated exactly the opposite, that the Volts were NOT related to the fires bothers you, I suggest you read elsewhere.
"I hide from no one." Seriously, are you even 16?
I don't expect a 16-year old to understand an industry he knows absoluitely nothing about, but if you think that Ford and other American OEMs and suppliers would have been able to get financing during the finacial crisis, you're even dumber than you look from your posts. If former Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama had not bailed out GM/Chrysler, there would be no Ford, either, nor most major American suppliers.
http://www.green.autoblog.com/2011/04/18/report-burnt-chevrolet-volt-mysteriously-catches-fire-again/
Seems like there is may be a problem with compromised Chevy Volt battery packs based on this and the NHTSA crash testing.
A few months ago, someone in our company included a wrong page in the blueprints for a custom built home. The error was not caught until someone noticed that the bathroom really should have been built on the other side of the house where the bathroom plumbing was installed. Our company president, upon hearing this said " What a Matt Drudge."
Since then, where we used to say "What a F U", now we say "M D."
(I was following the Volt before I even heard of Obama..) I presume you know that the GW Bush passed the legislation that supported the tax credit for the Volt -- and we are nowhere near the 200,000 credits he put into law.
No one has received an Obama tax credit for an EV yet!
When the total expenses, original cost, maintenance etc. for the car over a period of 5 years is factored in, the VOLT is a PIG. A costly PIG.
With the rather complex, untested engineering factored in, you can expect horrendous maintenance and repair bills in the future.
This "electric" concept is headed for a museum featuring Edsel, Yugo, Tucker, Owen Magnetic and ultimately VOLT.
It's a $34k after the tax gain. At my local off-peak electricity rate, it would save me about $160/month even after the electricity. Over five years, that's almost $10k. Let's see, that's $24k right there. Still seem expensive?
It's a niche vehicle designed to start sales of a technology, it's not a failure if it doesn't sell 200k annually.
Company: General Motors
GM (GM) was originally so excited about the Volt that the company had announced in January it was speeding up its roll-out by six months. But by November the excitement had fizzled out. Larry Nitz, GM’s executive director for vehicle electrification told Reuters, “It’s naive to think that the world is going to switch tomorrow to EVs [electric vehicles].” Indeed, sales for the vehicle have been consistently low. Only 125 models were sold in July 2011. This was after GM spokeswoman Michelle Bunker was quoted as saying that the Volt was “virtually sold out” due to its popularity — a statement later shown to be misguided. Adding insult to injury, Chevy Volts are under investigation for fires involving the cars
(2) Watch it with the personal attacks, on other commenters and on me. That's twice now that you've said I'm being paid by GM. That's not true. Unless you intend to prove it--and that will be impossible, LOL--further comments to that effect will be moderated. I have a very liberal policy on comments, but really, keep it to the facts.
I am sure your editor dictates the flavor of articles, NO? If not, then your green agenda tends to favor a new technology whether feasible, practical and cost effective, or not, right?
GM now has a 185 day back-log of VOLTS-NOT selling...this is a FACT I am sure you are aware of it if not your supporting commenters.
A man as informed as you are should feel some responsibility towards disseminating all facts surrounding the VOLT.
The VOLT is a waste of time & money. A pointless endeavor created out of varaious pressures exerted upon a company famous for shooting itself in the foot.
A boondoggle.
Your statements--"The VOLT is a waste of time & money. A pointless endeavor created out of varaious pressures exerted upon a company famous for shooting itself in the foot"--are opinions.
There IS a difference.
Common knowledge my butt, you're either making it up 100% or taking it from a source that can't be trusted. Others can provide evidence for their claims, what makes your nonsensical claims special?
I'mm making it simple for you, rocket scientist, either provide evidence of what you claim, or stop the BS right about now.
And calling someone "on the take" for using facts... What a miserable argument...
Lets see, at sales averaging aprox. 600/mo. that comes to a 137 day inventory at the end of October...sounds right to me. The VOLT is NOT selling.
You folks scream and holler about picayune and petty things such as urls, spelling and grammatical errors....just to defray the negativity that VOLT attracts.
This car is headed for an obscure place in history.
You want hybrid? You want economy" You want value for your money? Check out the new "Prius c" at $19,000 and 53+ mpg...
They also have instructed dealers to sell their demos.
Next comes a phasing out of the 2012 production...don't you guys read the news? or is it just GM press releases you read?
Then you threaten to not post my comments.
Obviously you know that the VOLT is a failure and YOU JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT !
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