Tag Archives: Volvo

No Speeding for You! by Eric Peters

Posted on March 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

Soon we’ll all have cars that won’t let us speed, not even one mile per hour over the limit. From Eric Peters at theburningplatform.com:

The inevitable has happened.

Volvo just announced that it will limit the top speed of all its new cars to 112 MPH, beginning with the 2021 model year – to “highlight the dangers of speeding.”

But it’s not just top speed Volvo intends to limit.

In addition to electronically preventing its cars from exceeding 112 MPH anywhere, it plans to limit you from exceeding the speed limit in school zones, near hospitals and – implicitly – everywhere else.

“We want to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even the obligation to install technology in cars that changes their driver’s behavior,” croons Volvo’s president and chief executive Hakan Samuelsson.

Italics added.

Samuelsson is saying – openly – that what Volvo is about to do everyone else must also do. In other words, a fatwa from the government – or the de facto equivalent – outlawing (or rendering impossible) “speeding,” period.

Because everyone knows that it’s ipso facto “dangerous” to ever drive even 1 MPH faster than whatever speed the government – which is all knowing – decrees to be the “safe” speed.

And more than just that.

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The Double-Batteried Electric Polecat, by Eric Peters

Posted on January 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

If the only electric car models that can make money are high end speedsters, why are we subsidizing them? From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

The Electric Dementia continues to wax, the latest evidence of which is Volvo’s announcement about its Polestar performance car arm becoming its electrified performance  arm.

Hold up there, chief.

Weren’t electric cars supposed to be a better way to get around – that is, less expensive to own and drive, more convenient – rather than a faster way to get around?

And if speed is now the main EV draw, why is the government still subsidizing them? Isn’t it like subsidizing ribe-eye steaks and sushi for all? Which is a nice idea – if you’re the one getting the subsidized rib-eyes and sushi rather than the one getting the bill.

There is also an environmental affront here. High-performance cars, whether electric or IC, use more energy than cars designed to get from A to B as economically as possible. So why is the government subsidizing cars that are specifically not designed to get from A to B as economically as possible? Which use more energy, gratuitously – just for the fun of it –  and so, more resources and also (here it comes) emit more byproducts – C02, in the case of high-performance electric cars – than they neeeeeeeeeeeeeeed to?

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Volvo Commits Seppuku, by Eric Peters

Posted on July 9, 2017 | 3 comments

Volvo commits to producing the type of electric cars that nobody is buying without big subsidies from the government. It may be the death of Volvo. From Eric Peters at theburningplatform.com:

With gas cheaper than it has been in at least 50 years – strongly suggestive that there is plenty of it available and will be for some time to come – Volvo has announced its decision to build nothing but expensive plug-in hybrid and full-on electric cars beginning after the 2019 model year.

Cue the falling of rose petals.

“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” saith Volvo’s CEO Hakan Samuelsson.

No, it marks the end of sanity – and very possibly of Volvo as a manufacturer of cars. Well, as a manufacturer of cars that people can actually afford to buy or want to buy and which aren’t massively subsidized by the government – from the assembly line to the moment they drive off the dealer’s lot.

But why is Volvo – why is the industry – so hell-bent on replacing cars that work with those that do not?

Especially now?

Volvo’s Dear Leader

With gas prices going down rather than up?

It is the height of the summer driving season – when gas usually costs the most – and prices remain stable at around $2.00 per gallon. People notice this – and shop accordingly. Trying to sell them a hybrid or electric car when gas is cheap is like trying to get a cellulitic fat girl voted in as Miss Universe (though that is probably coming, in the spirit of “diversity”).

Did you know that sales of the Toyota Prius – the only somewhat reasonably priced hybrid car currently on the market – are down? And that Toyota had to give up trying to sell the not-reasonably-priced plug-in version of the Prius? (Which happens to be exactly the type of hybrid that Volvo will be making exclusively two years hence?)

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

With gas at about $2.00 per gallon, spending $2,000 extra to buy a Prius ($23,475) vs. an otherwise similar but non-hybrid car like a base trim/four-cylinder Camry – which is actually a larger/nicer car than the Prius – does not make economic sense. It makes even less sense when you compare the cost of a Prius with the cost of something more directly comparable, such as a Corolla. You can buy one of those for $18,500 – which is $4,975 less than a Prius.

To continue reading: Volvo Commits Seppuku

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