HEY, WAIT, I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO SAVE THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY: “GM wouldn’t be in quite so deep a hole if it had not sunk a billion dollars, and much of its corporate reputation, into a not-very-realistic plug-in electric hybrid vehicle known as the Chevrolet Volt. Likely to cost consumers more than $30,000 even after a big government tax rebate, the little four-seat Volt ‘is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable,’ President Obama’s automobile task force reported on March 30.”

I might still have bought one, as an early-adopter type, had GM stayed solvent. I’m much less likely to buy one now, given my moral qualms with GM’s takeover, and my practical concerns about the quality of work likely to come out of the automotive equivalent of a VA hospital. Oh, well, there’s always an Aptera!