Unplugged and Clueless
Along with all the press the last two weeks about the imminent demise of General Motors, Chrysler and possibly Ford, there has also been much written about whether a car like the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, due to go on sale in 2010 for about $40,000 a pop, can save the U.S. auto industry. It’s a fair question to ask, and worthy of a great deal of discussion, but the other day I read a column in the Wall Street Journal that gets the Volt so completely wrong that I have to wonder where this discussion is going. and why.
The columnist, Holman W. Jenkins Jr., writes in his November 12th column, “We’re talking about a headache of a car that will have to be recharged for six hours to give 40 miles of gasoline-free driving. What if you park on the street or in a public garage? Tough luck.” Uh… Mr. Jenkins? The Volt will drive up to 40 miles without using gasoline; that doesn’t mean it’s dead after 40 miles. It means that after 40 miles of driving the gasoline engine kicks in to charge the batteries and keep the car running.
The odd thing is, he seems to know this, because he goes on in the very next sentence to write that “The Volt also will have a small gas engine onboard to recharge the battery for trips of more than 40 miles.” So why does he claim that you would be stuck on the street or a public garage after 40 miles of driving?
This is what irks me about Jenkins’ column. He’s not making a flawed argument based on simple ignorance; he’s making a flawed argument based on a deliberate twisting of the facts. And he’s making it in the Wall Street Journal, where it’s going to influence the thinking of a whole lot of people who could be and should be instrumental in charting our energy future. That’s just a disgrace.
I don’t know if the Chevy Volt can possibly save GM; I don’t know if anything can. But if you’re going to argue that point, Mr. Jenkins, please get your facts straight, and be honest about them.