Matt Drudge's Idiotic, Uninformed War Against The Chevy Volt Page 2
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Moving deeper into the archives, we get to a screaming, all-caps headline about the original news that a battery pack in a Volt wrecked in a crash test had caught fire.
We compliment Drudge for actually including in his headline the crucial fact that the fire came three weeks after the crash. Or as one commenter quipped, "So I should make sure to get out of my wrecked Volt within three weeks?"
40 miles is not miles per gallon
Three more Drudge headlines just reinforce the point.
There's an intriguing link under the headline "114-year-old electric car gets the same mileage as the Chevy Volt". That's wrong; Drudge means range, not gas mileage. But, gee, what's a little technical inaccuracy when you're trying to make a political point?
The missing context, of course, is that while the 1896 Roberts electric car got up to 40 miles on electricity--as the Volt does--it certainly never did 80-plus mph at the same time. Nor did it have the comfort, safety equipment, smoothness, and features of the Volt. Things change over a century, though you'd not have known that via Drudge.
Then there's a shriek linking to the July sales results, in which Chevrolet sold just 125 Volts. Yep. They did. We provided the context: The factory was down for retooling. That, of course, didn't appear in the Drudge headline. Kind of like saying no Buick Electras were sold last year (because they didn't build any), no?
Volt set garage on fire !! (No, actually, it didn't)
And, finally, the single most misleading Volt headline Drudge posted: "Chevy Volt sparks garage fire." Which refers to the fire that destroyed a garage in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, occupied by a Volt and a homebrew electric-car conversion of a Suzuki.
2011 Chevrolet Volt destroyed in Barkhamsted, CT, garage fire; image from WTNH News 8 report
Enlarge PhotoAll reputable press outlets carefully worded their headlines to indicate that the Volt was being considered as one potential source of the fire. Some asked whether the Volt could have been the source?
Not Drudge. He dived right in there and claimed the Volt was the source of the fire.
Which, in fact, it wasn't, as subsequently determined by the local fire marshal.
Neither was a second Volt that was destroyed in a North Carolina garage fire the source of that blaze either.
In the end, of course, Drudge's mission isn't to provide responsible commentary or even journalism. It's to draw traffic to his site amongst an audience eager to think ill of certain people, entities, products, and causes, and to support others. He does that with headlines that are often inflammatory and sometimes simply wrong.
Why? Because the Chevrolet Volt, to his way of thinking, must be bad because it's from a bad company (that same "Gov't Motors") supported by bad people (the auto bailout team, backed by President Obama, and probably Democrats in general).
No experience behind the wheel?
To the best of our knowledge, Matt Drudge has never actually driven a Chevy Volt. (Matt: If you have, please contact us--we'll change this story to reflect that.) We suspect GM would be more than happy to loan him one, so he could experience electric drive for himself.
But that might cause a bit of cognitive dissonance, once it didn't explode, proved to be a smooth, quiet, well-performing and safe ride. Not to mention, of course, the Volt owners eager to tell him just how great they think the car is.
And how little gasoline they've used. And the oil that didn't have to be imported to feed their car. And the very low cost of running on grid electricity.
All too much?
We think that might be all too much for the delicate Drudge.
Matt Drudge is, of course, far from the only anti-Volt commentator. Rush Limbaugh does it too. But we'll save his inaccuracies for another day.
For an example, by the way, of a calm but persistent Volt owner using actual facts to reduce a fact-free commentator to twitching irrelevance, see Eric Rotbard's epic takedown of Neil Cavuto on Fox News.
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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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