Could Obama Pull the Plug on the Volt?

It seems that President Obama's economic and environmental goals are at an impasse.

After ordering the replacement of GM's top dog, he is now taking aim at the Chevy Volt, GM's Hail Mary pass to try and leapfrog Honda, Toyota, and a handful of independent automakers in the race for affordable, practical electric transportation. It seems that because GM has been continually revising their estimated sale price for when the Volt launches, uh...whenever it finally does, Obama's camp is losing faith that it will be the saviour that GM has been hoping it would be. With the estimated price now up near the mid $40,000s and America mired in a recession with no end in sight, the car runs the risk of simply being too expensive compared to the new Prius and the Honda Insight.

Currently, the Prius and Insight are not available as plug-ins in North America, which does have an impact on their total emissions. The Volt on the other hand is designed for home and mobile plug-in, using gasoline only when you really need it, after about 40 miles (64km) of all-electric driving. Even though this is supposedly the greener option, the increased price sandwiches the Volt awkwardly in between the leading hybrids and some of the more rare, more expensive, all-electric cars already found on the road today. Whether the Chevy Volt ever sees market remains to be seen, but the last ditch hopes of GM and the American car dynasty may be tied directly to its fate, and for that, Barack Obama cannot be too careful about how he handles this situation.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/presidential-auto-task-force-gm-chevy-volt-electric-car-plug-in-hybrid-commercial.php