President Barack Obama wants to see one million electric cars on the road by 2015, and he wants to spend more taxpayer dollars to make it happen. But if electric vehicles were economically competitive, they wouldn’t need the government’s help. It should be no surprise that, with the nation $15 trillion in debt, taxpayers overwhelmingly oppose the plan.
Rasmussen reports that according to a new poll, 58% of Americans oppose the President’s proposal to offer $10,000 tax credits for buyers of high-cost electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf:
President Obama in his latest budget has proposed $10,000 subsidies to encourage the purchase of electric cars with his goal of having one million of the vehicles on the road by 2015. But voters by a two-to-one margin oppose taxpayer-funded subsidies for this purpose.
Just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters favor $10,000 government subsidies to encourage the purchase of electric cars, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifty-eight percent (58%) are opposed to such subsidies. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided.
Keep in mind, the Obama Administration already offers a $7,500 taxpayer-funded subsidy for the cars, some of which cost more than $40,000. It’s also worth nothing that the government heavily subsidizes the production of electric vehicles and batter technologies, as well. But even with those subsidies, consumers aren’t pulling the trigger on making a purchase.
In January, General Motors sold 603 Volts — almost twice as many as in January 2010, but less than half of its total sales in December. And in 2011, GM missed its projected sales volume for the vehicle, shipping 7,671 of the vehicles — well short of its target of 10,000. Compare that with sales of pickup trucks. In 2011, Ford sold 584,917 of its F-Series, and GM sold 415,130 Silverados. And those sales weren’t fueled by taxpayer-funded subsidies.
If straight-up sales figures are any indication — even with gas prices at record high levels — American consumers aren’t buying into the Obama Administration’s push for electric vehicles. And according to the poll numbers, they’re not buying into the President’s push to grease the wheels on the sales of the costly green vehicles, either.
