In a move that is sure to annoy someone in the Sierra Club, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne criticized Federal and state regulations that push automobile manufacturers to build electric vehicles. At a conference in Washington, D.C., he was reported as saying, “I hope you don’t buy (the Fiat 500e), because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000. I’m honest enough to tell you that.” He went on to say, “I will sell the (minimum) of what I need to sell and not one more.”
Marchionne is known for being business savvy. Hell, he somehow got FIAT to become profitable! So for him to disclose the amount of money being lost in the mandated EV program is interesting. Seeing how the 500e already sells for $32,300 (!) before all of the incentives, raising the price by $14K isn’t going to help the situation. But currently the battery-powered Fiat is only sold in California and in low numbers already, so in the grand scheme of things, the impact is actually pretty low. But anyone who has watched Chrysler over the last fifteen or so years knows any penny saved is worth the effort.
I’m sure that the $14K saved for every 500e not sold could go to a better cause. Lemme see…got the Challenger Hellcat, Ram is doing good…where to spend the saved money…hey, Sergio! How about that AWD, turbo Dart? You know, the one with enough guts to go scare Subaru owners? Just putting that one out there.
CLICK HERE to see the Fiat/Chrsyler boss's comments on the electric cars he's being forced to sell
Sergio has no problem there with me. I don’t buy anything with the Fiat name on it. That includes Chrysler.
The California “zero emissions” electric car mandate is only the “tip of the iceberg.” Government interference in the free market drives up the cost of every car enthusiasts want. And it drives down the supply. Just remember that when you’re forced into a FWD 3-cylinder and the RWD and V8 you want is priced out of reach.
Sergio apparently hopes that a failure of the forced market for total electric cars will result in a regulatory rollback. If they don’t sell, OEMs have cover to lobby for reduction or elimination of the mandate. Good luck with that . . . .
The EPA just announced new, stricter rules on coal fired electrical plants making it likely many of the current plants won’t remain open because of their inability to meet the new standards.
How do you power tiny, expensive electric cars without electrical plants?
Wind power . . .
I recommend they set up a phalanx of windmills in and around the District of Columbia . . . Enough hot air flowing out of the federal bureaucracy and three branches of bloated government to power a fleet of tiny electric bumper cars . . . . 🙂
I can agree with the wind power comment. However, despite all the hot air coming from the DC area, the need for a daily regimen of laxatives seems greater….
I don’t know about that. The politicians seem to be spreading it around very thick lately. Specially on TV.
Maybe they need Imodium AD.
Tell it like it is Sergio!
Wind power. lmao
I should start a company that wrecks out and recycles wind turbines because when the subsidy money goes away, so will the companies that operate and maintain them.
Living in the “Saudi Arabia of wind” (according to T. Boone Pickens), the wind turbine scraping business might be a real moneymaker. . . . 🙂
But then, some utilities have gotten permission from regulators to charge customers more for wind power (another regulatory distortion of the market), so the “subsidy” may never really disappear. And after all, the self-righteous “Prius Set” will always need some way to show off to everyone else how much more “environmentally conscious” they are. So some of them volunteer to pay extra for wind-driven wattage.
(Sadly, none of the greeniacs I know of have taken up my modest proposal for them to “show the way” by living in natural, sustainable caves or sod huts without vehicles or utilities . . . .)
It’s a false dichotomy that’s being made here: either we all drive awesome muscle cars and burn coal / oil for our fuels, or we live in caves and eat nothing that casts a shadow, drawing some modest electricity from the wind.
Nobody that’s in favor of cleaning up power infrastructure / vehicle emissions is drawing that line – it’s fearful / reactionary BS that we’re all better than.
I’m not really for or against this mandatory EV business, I’m just saying : there’s room for the Hellcat and there’s room for the Prius. Nuclear power and solar energy, too.
The issue isn’t whether there is “room” for anything. The issue is whether or not free markets or bureaucratic central planning will decide the product mix.
The point about the living in caves is that the meddling enviro neo-socialists who want to bust my chops for driving a V8 (and deprive me of the chance to get another in the future) are [B] mostly plain old hypocrites [/B]. . . They talk a bunch of “fearful/reactionary” claptrap, but do almost nothing to “walk the walk.”
The greeniac jet set are the worst . . . condescendingly attacking my vehicular freedom-of-choice even as they burn copious amounts of jet fuel flying between meetings of their leftist, anti-freedom green “klaverns,” (between stays in their “McMansions” and energy-guzzling luxury resorts).