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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (666340)	8/9/2012 12:19:03 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572202

General Motors Co.has sold 8,817 Chevrolet Volts in the first half of this year, a 221% increase. That includes 1,760 sold in June. Volt sales have been helped by the car's recent qualification for the California rebate and carpool lane permits. About 28% of its sales last month were in California. Lame. Can't sell them without layer upon layer of taxpayer money -- federal AND state. Who in hell wants to drive a car the fucking government bought for them? I wouldn't be caught dead in one for that reason alone. I'd be embarrassed that I actually took taxpayer money for it.

To: tejek who wrote (666340)	8/9/2012 12:35:02 PM
From: longnshort	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1572202

Our investigation was prompted by a November piece written by the National Legal and Policy Center that alleged ‘Government Motors’ were including purchases made by local municipalities with federal grant money in their sales numbers. Inquiries made by Breitbart News show those claims are valid, but that the car is reportedly also becoming popular at various dealerships around the country. Last year, the town of Deland, Florida bought five Volts and the town of Babylon, New York purchased charging stations with federal grant money—a fact which both municipal governments proudly confirm. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Deland bought their five Volts with money from “a $1.2 million federal grant that was earmarked partially to help with the purchase of alternative-fuel vehicles and other energy-efficient upgrades.” Deland government officials say the grant was funneled through the State of Florida from the federal government. “The grant we received was from the State of Florida, but the state got that money from a grant that came from the U.S. Department of Energy,” according to Michael Grabosz, Assistant to the Deland City Manager. “The grant was a competitive grant that we applied for and it was all things green basically, it was energy,” he added. “We had a few facets, and they were community outreach, energy efficient upgrades for buildings and some private and commercial buildings called sub-grants and then also the green vehicles. So those were the facets of the grant received. The total we received was… $1.2 million.” The online site for the Town of Babylon also proudly boasts that local officials “added four 2012 Chevy Volts to its municipal fleet,” and paid for charging stations with money that came from a special federal grant known as the ChargePoint American Program. The charging stations —according to Chevy dealerships contacted by Breitbart News—help expedite charging time from as much as 14 hours down to four hours. Those four to 14 hours will get a driver about 40 miles of tread before the automobile’s gas engine will have to kick in. Michelle Malcho, a GM spokeswoman in Detroit, Michigan specially assigned to the Chevy Volt talked to Breitbart News and said that the overwhelming majority of sales come from the company’s “retail side” as opposed to the “fleet side,” which would mean they’re supposedly selling to ordinary consumers—not government agencies. “We do have some municipalities that buy Volts for their Fleet cars,” Malcho admitted. “I just saw some in New York, I know some municipalities are using them, but I can’t give you any numbers at the moment… out of our total sales for Volt the large majority are retail, they’re not fleet, but I don’t have a list of municipalities.” Malcho said that from GM’s perspective the local government Volt purchases make sense because the car serves their purposes since most government employees do not drive public use vehicles more than 40 miles a day. “I don’t know which municipalities are buying fleets,” she said while flipping through pages of records. “It actually makes sense for a municipality to put the Volt in their fleet. I’m not aware of how they fund it, that would be up to each municipality, that’s not something GM is involved in.”