Pricing for the Chevy Volt, that eagerly awaited savior of Government Motors, has been set at last: $41,000! That's $8,000 more than the Nissan Leaf will sell for, and the Leaf is a pure electric. The Volt is a hybrid, running only 40 miles on a charge, the rest on a gasoline generator. In one of the most deceptive lines in the WaPo article, the writer informs us that "Although the prices are high, enthusiasts say that electric cars can reach a large, untapped market for vehicles with little or no tailpipe emissions." Oh the clever journalists, parsing their words so carefully: yes, zero tailpipe emissions if you always plug it in and drive no farther than 40 miles and if you don't count the smokestack emissions from the oh-so-evil coal-fired electric generation plants. And notice that the writer is not silly enough to say there is "a large, untapped market" for such vehicles; no, that would be the enthusiasts speaking. Of course. And enthusiasts will say...(Read Full Post)