Were VW’s U.S. workers threatened into signing UAW cards?

Guest post by Labor Union Report

With its future hinging on unionizing the American factories of foreign automakers, the United Auto Workers has been desperately courting Volkwagen’s 2700 employees Tennessee since 2011.

According to news reports on Wednesday, a majority of Volkswagen AG’s employees in Chattanooga have signed union authorization cards indicating the desire “to join VW’s Global Works Council and supporting cooperative and collaborative relations with the company.”

The UAW is claiming that the cards are as valid as the workers having voted in an election.

The question that is not being posed, however, is: Were the majority of VW’s workers’ signatures were gathered based on threats, coercion and fear?

You may recall that, back in June, Stephan Wolf, a high-ranking German union official with Volkswagen AG issued an ultimatum to VW’s American workers in the press:

“We will only agree to an expansion of the [Tennessee] site or any other model contract when it is clear how to proceed with the employees’ representatives in the United States.”

Unlike the U.S., under Germany’s co-determination labor relations model, unions have seats on corporations’ boards of directors and, as such, have a say in how a company is managed.

via Automotive News:

Employee representatives at VW also get a say in new products and investments through the company’s global works council, which includes representatives from all of its organized plants.

That may give labor leaders at VW enough power to follow through on the threat made by Wolf, the deputy chairman on the global works council.

This comment was quickly seized on by the UAW’s president, Bob King, who followed up with:

“If I was a worker, if I was a member of the Chattanooga community, and I wanted to have the best chance of getting new investment and new product, I would want a voice on the world employee council,” King said. “I would want somebody there representing the interests of Chattanooga. I wouldn’t want a decision made where every other plant in the world has representation there, and I don’t have somebody speaking up for me.” [Emphasis added.]

What labor leaders implied was that without representation on VW’s employee council through the UAW, Chattanooga would not receive the hoped-for expansion.

This statement was likely repeated over and over again by UAW organizers in order to coerce them into signing cards and, if that is the case, it could very well be a violation of the Tennessee employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

In other words, if VW’s German union has the influence to steer VW’s board to take away jobs (or future opportunities) from Tennessee workers in retaliation for them not unionizing, it could be as bad as an employer who threatened to take away opportunities if employees were to unionize–bearing in mind that, in this case, the German union has power in managing the direction of the company.

According to the NLRB’s own guidebook on the National Labor Relations Act:

Section 8(b)(1)(A) forbids a labor organization or its agents “to restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7.”…

…Union conduct that is reasonably calculated to restrain or coerce employees in their Section 7 rights violates Section 8(b)(1)(A) whether it succeeds in actually restraining or coercing employees….

…Examples of violations of Section 8(b)(1)(A). Examples of restraint or coercion that violate Section 8(b)(1)(A) when done by a union or its agents include the following:

Mass picketing in such numbers that nonstriking employees are physically barred from entering the plant.

Acts of force or violence on the picket line, or in connection with a strike.

Threats to do bodily injury to nonstriking employees.

* Threats to employees that they will lose their jobs unless they support the union’s activities.

Statement to employees who oppose the union that the employees will lose their jobs if the union wins a majority in the plant.

Entering into an agreement with an employer that recognizes the union as exclusive bargaining representative when it has not been chosen by a majority of the employees.

Fining or expelling members for crossing a picket line that is unlawful under the Act or that violates a no-strike agreement.

Fining employees for crossing a picket line after they resigned from the union.

Fining or expelling members for filing unfair labor practice charges with the Board or for participating in an investigation conducted by the Board.

…Section 8(b)(2) makes it an unfair labor practice for a labor organization to cause an employer to discriminate against an employee in violation of Section 8(a)(3). As discussed earlier, Section 8(a)(3) prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee in regard to wages, hours, and other conditions of employment for the purpose of encouraging or discouraging membership in a labor organization.

…To find that a union caused an employer to discriminate, it is not necessary to show that any express demand was spoken. A union’s conduct, accompanied by statements advising or suggesting that action is expected of an employer, may be enough to find a violation of this section if the union’s action can be shown to be a causal factor in the employer’s discrimination. [Emphasis added.]

Normally, a union–particularly a foreign union–could not threaten that, if workers don’t choose union representation, they will lose their jobs…or opportunities of jobs. Normally, only an employer would have the ability to make a threat like that.

However, normally, unions don’t have the power that Volkswagen AG’s union does and, in this case, VW’s German has every bit of control over investment that an American employer would.

Therefore, while the German union is a “union,” here in the U.S., its threatening statements would carry the same amount of weight with workers that an company’s executive threats would carry.

If Tennessee’s workers really do not want the UAW as their representative, they do have the right to file an unfair labor practice charge with Obama’s National Labor Relations Board.

While the union-appointees controlling NLRB may be inclined dismiss the workers’ charge, they may be reminded of another high-profile case, wherein they used statements made in the press by a company’s executives to prosecute a company.

That case was Boeing, and the NLRB’s rational was that Boeing retaliated against its unionized workers by the executives stating that, without a long contract with a no-strike clause, they would put the work in South Carolina. This, according to the NLRB, was retaliation against Boeing’s unionized workforce having exercised their NLRA Section Seven rights.

In the case of VW, a powerful union with control over the company’s investment decisions threatened workers that if they did not exercise their Section Seven rights a certain way (by getting representation), their plant might not get a hoped-for expansion.

If that’s not coercive, what is?

 

Get LUR updates on Twitter.

Cross-posted on RedState.

 

AFL-CIO Looks to Turn All of America Into Detroit

Guest post by Eric Boehm

One of the major themes to emerge from this week’s national conference of the AFL-CIO in Los Angeles is a push to expand union organizing beyond the traditional collective bargaining agreement and into every workplace.

And after some brief flirting, the AFL-CIO is ready to go steady with “workers centers,” which are popping up around the nation to help organize workers in the service sector. Members of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for dozens of labor unions, approved a resolution this week to establish a more formal connection between the union and the workers centers that it has, in many cases, helped to start.

“The labor movement cannot be confined within bargaining units defined by government agencies or limited to workplaces where a majority of employees votes “Yes” in the face of a ruthless campaign by their employer to deny them representation,” the resolution reads.

The union said it would seek to organize workers who are not in traditional collective bargaining agreements and would “mobilize these new members in electoral and other political efforts and in support of organizing drives and collective bargaining campaigns.”

To achieve that end, the AFL-CIO pledged to work more closely with “workers centers” and with foundations providing seed money to those centers.

In many cases, these workers centers have morphed into front groups for unions by using Occupy-style tactics and threats of lawsuits to make employers comply with their demands, despite the lack of a collective bargaining agreement.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, echoed the “big tent” message during his keynote remarks to the conference Monday night.

“All over America, workers are organizing in all kinds of ways, and they call their unity by all kinds of names — workers’ unions, associations, centers, networks,” he said.

As Watchdog.org previously reported, one of those centers – the Restaurant Opportunity Center, or ROC United, which was launched in New York City in 2001 – has been at the forefront of a recent wave of protests in major cities, attempting draw attention to low-wage restaurant workers.

BIG TENT: AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka says the labor movement should not be limited by official agreements between workers and employers.

Saru Jayaraman, co-founder of ROC-United, was a featured speaker at the AFL-CIO conference this week.

Previously, Trumka specifically praised the work of Jayaraman and ROC-United for organizing workers in New York and dozens of other cities.

It’s probably no surprise unions are looking to broaden their horizons. Union membership has been on the decline nationally for a few decades, particularly in the private sector.

“If I were within that organization, I would probably be trying to do the exactly what they are doing,” said Jade West, senior vice president for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

West said the unions’ declining influence has little effect on the daily lives of most employers, but the rise of workers centers and their organizing tactics is a real threat to workers and businesses.

In 2012, about 7 million private-sector workers were members of a labor union, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s half of the 14 million private-sector labor union members in 1980.

Growth in public sector unions — they now account for more than 50 percent of all union membership, up from just 28 percent in 1980 — has helped the labor movement continue its powerful influence in politics, but it has also changed how the movement works.

Instead of fighting for weekends, better working conditions and a decent wage for industrious, blue-collar workers, unions today are more likely to be defending the right of a 50-year-old white-collar worker to retire early with full pension benefits until death.

In 2009, public-sector unions outnumbered their private-sector counterparts for the first time ever.

The move toward workers centers and other low-pay, long-hours, service-sector employees brings unions back toward their original purpose. Plus, it comes with the added benefit of more workers to mobilize in electoral efforts, as the AFL-CIO indicated in its resolution.

West said many workers are no longer looking for a 25-year job with a single company that ends with a gold watch and a pension, leaving unions to scramble for a new generation of members.

“They have almost become an anachronism,” said West. I don’t think the workforce really sees the need for a union.”

 
Boehm is a reporter for Watchdog.org and can be reached at Eric@PAIndependent.com. Follow @EricBoehm87 on Twitter for more.
 

2014 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster

Matt Hardigree at Jalopnik is driving one as his primary vehicle and answering questions about it.

Question: Does such a wide and heavy car feel ... well, wide & heavy? Reviews of similar cars often point out how nimble supercars are, but are those mini cooper or Fiesta ST levels of nimbleness?

It feels wide, because that's not as much a physical sensation as it is a visual/perceptual one and you certainly feel like you're going to scratch an oncoming car until you get used to it, which is fairly quickly.

However, parked next to a Countach S it seems as narrow as a Morgan 3-Wheeler.

Heavy? No. Because V12. Also, the steering in the most extreme mode is so sensitive it steers with your mind, so nimbleness is a byproduct of your mental agility.

A man can dream, can't he?


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE: Driver clocked at 148 mph was 'airing out' his 2001 Ford Mustang

Remind me not to use this particular excuse:

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KARE11) - It's a number that grabs attention immediately.

Seriously... 148 miles per hour.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says a man from Darwin was the champ when it came to citations during a recent statewide crackdown on speeders. Richard Bernhagen, age 41, was ticketed for doing 148 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone on a road just outside Hutchinson.

State Patrol spokesman Lt. Eric Roeske says a trooper stopped Bernhagen's 2001 Mustang GT on Tagas Avenue just before 2 p.m. July 17. The trooper says Bernhagen stated "I haven't driven it in a while and was airing it out, I was wrong."

Roeske says the driver admitted to doing 135 mph...

Can't you just imagine the judge at the hearing?

"Son, you were going about a hunnert miles an hour... over the speed limit!"


Hat tips: Jalopnik and BadBlue Car News.

Top 10 Car Memes That Went Viral Instantly

Spotted at Car Throttle:

Hat tip: Check out BadBlue Car News for all the latest automotive headlines.

Bin Laden's Dead and So Is Detroit

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Bankruptcy: The fundamental transformation of Detroit is complete, as socialism's theme park succumbs to government run amok, a reminder that government isn't the solution to our problems but their cause.

The wisdom of President Reagan's words have been lost under an administration that believes government is the entity from which all blessings flow. So has Margaret Thatcher's observation that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

Last Oct. 13, President Obama boasted in a weekly address about the bailed-out auto industry that, "We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. I bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later that bet is paying off in a big way."

Less than a year later, the American auto industry is indeed surviving, bolstered largely by a Ford that refused government assistance and foreign transplants located in right-to-work states. Even General Motors has been forced to pay the free market some lip service, lest its customers go elsewhere, even as it accepts Chevy Volt subsidies.

Detroit, however, is dead, and unions and government killed it. Michigan recently became a right-to-work state, but it was too late to save a city that had become beholden to unions. As the United Auto Workers helped destroy the auto industry in and around Detroit, it's no accident that Mercedes-Benz decided to build its flagship SUV in a shiny new facility in Vance, Ala.

Labor overhead was an albatross around Detroit's neck. Until recently, total pay and benefits for a full-time worker at the Big Three averaged $140,000 a year vs. $80,000 for their foreign competitors. Add an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and you wonder not why Detroit failed, but why it didn't fail sooner.

Detroit's response to a declining business climate was more taxes, fewer city services and bloated pensions for workers in the only growth area — government.

The city's $11 billion in unsecured debt includes $6 billion in health and other retirement benefits and $3 billion in retiree pensions for its 20,000 city pensioners, members of the public sector unions that helped bring Detroit to its knees.

In the face of government incompetence, it was the people of Detroit who went on strike. Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s teemed with 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled, taking their tax dollars with them.

Detroit is the rotten fruit of uncontested progressive socialism. In 1960, Detroit had the highest per capita income in the U.S.; today, it's the poorest of our large cities. An estimated 78,000 of the city's homes are unoccupied, and in 2011 half the occupiers of its 305,000 properties did not pay any tax. Some 40% of the street lights do not work.

Detroit has 264,209 households, and 91,204 — or 34.5% — get food stamps. Only 54.3% of Detroit residents participate in the labor force. This is how America is beginning to look. If we continue down President Obama's path, America will become Detroit, only with a press to print money.

Indeed, the scary part is that Detroit is what Obama wants to fundamentally transform America into: a place where wealth is redistributed, not created, and where government picks winners and losers in an economy in which we all ultimately lose.

Speaking at Ohio State University in May, he told graduates not to listen to "voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems."

Detroit didn't. We should.


Follow @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

The BMW 3-Series Coupe is Dead. Long Live the BMW 4-Series Coupe.

The Beemer may be more car than I need or can handle, but I definitely respect its street cred.

In BMWspeak, usually the higher the number on the trunk lid the greater the bragging rights and the higher the amount customers are willing to pay. This is one view of the new BMW 4-series coupe -- successor to the much-loved 3-series coupe. After a 38-year, five-generation run, the 3-series coupe is stepping down...

At launch, set for October in North America, the rear-wheel drive 4-series will come with the choice of two turbocharged direct-injection gasoline engines: a 2.0-liter four producing 240 hp in the 428i coupe and 3.0-liter six with 300 hp in the 435i coupe. Both come with optional four-wheel drive as part of BMW's xDrive in the US...

...Drive continues to be sent to the rear wheels through a standard six-speed manual gearbox with the latest in stop-start and brake energy recuperation, but all 435is at the launch in Portugal had the optional eight-speed automatic with paddle shifters -- a combination likely to prove popular in the States.

So configured the car will hit 62 mph in 5.1 seconds, a half-second quicker than the old car, and just 0.3 seconds shy of the outgoing M3 coupe. Top speed is limited to 155 mph. The eight speed is slick, with new software mapping for a clear improvement in the shifting's speed and quality.

Some of the other key stats: 3.0-liter, 300-hp, 300 lb-ft. Oh, and a starting price of $46,925.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

Today's Lesson in Political Philosophy, Helpfully Illustrated for the Low-Information Voter

Detroit filed for bankruptcy yesterday, representing the largest municipal insolvency in American history.

Socialism improves its perfect record to zero-for-840. Or, as Dave Blount puts it, Detroit just ran out of other people's money.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Is This Fake Ferrari California The World’s Worst Replica Car?

Andrew Evans, writing at Car Throttle, spotlights possibly the worst replicar in history:

For a comparatively tiny outlay on a donor chassis, powertrain and fibreglass body you can own a car that looks almost indistinguishable from an incredibly expensive or rare hero car of old. Ford RS200? No bother. Ferrari 355? Easy. AC Cobra? Nine out of ten Cobras on the road are replicas.

But that doesn’t mean that every replica is good – or even a good idea – as this “Ferrari” shows...

...The car underneath? A ten year old Lexus SC430, oft-derided as one of the worst cars of all time, and certainly one of the most dismal sports cars of all time, with the handling precision of a badly thrown discus.

That means the 4.3 V8 underneath provides a lazily useless 290hp to the two ton sloth and propels it to 60mph in twice the time the real California takes; ending any confusion between the cars even to those not blessed with the gift of sight...

In fairness to the fake Ferrari makers, the Merzuki Benz still takes the cake in my book.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

Remember the Porsche 911 Targa? It's back. And this time it's pissed off.

Back in the day, the Porsche 911 Targa was the thinking man's compromise between convertible and hard top. Its modern successor is the 991.

To be fair, I spotted this headline over at BadBlue Car News. Bookmark it to keep up with the latest auto news.

THAT MUST BE ONE BORING PREACHER: 7-year-old boy steals dad's car to avoid church

If this kid applies as much energy to his schoolwork, he's gonna be one successful dude.

Police in Utah were in for a shock when they spotted an erratic driver recently. After following the white Dodge Intrepid for a spell, the pursuing officers watched as the driver parked the car, jumped from behind the wheel and ran into his father's house. Standard fare, you say? Not quite.


The driver was actually a seven-year-old boy who had pilfered his dad's keys to skip out on going to church. The officers opted to let the parents handle disciplining the youngster rather than subject him to the legal system, but cautioned the dad to keep his car keys in a more secure location in the future.

Good call.

You can check out video from the chase for yourself... The police say the kid did a pretty good job of keeping the car under control, but did run one stop sign. As Ricky Bobby would say, "I wanna go fast."

How come girls never engage in these kinds of capers? Why is it always boys?


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

At Least He's Honest

Jalopnik:



Hat tip: BadBlue Cars.

I don't think you're going to be outrunning this particular cop car...

In this case, the $550,000 Lamborghini Aventador Squad Car:

In a city of boundless bling, Dubai police also are in hot pursuit after adding a nearly $550,000 Lamborghini to its fleet.

The sports car, painted in green-and-white colors of the Dubai force, will not likely be roaring after law breakers. Instead, it will be mostly dispatched to tourist areas to show - in the words of deputy police director, Gen. Khamis Matter al-Muzaina - "how classy Dubai is."


Local media reports Thursday say the Italian-made Lamborghini Aventador is the crown jewel of a wider upgrade in Dubai police wheels. The force also is adding some American muscle car Camaros.

...the Lamborghini Aventador has a maximum speed of 217 mph and accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds...

Dubai seeks to show it has rebounded from its debt crisis with brash plans that include the world's largest Ferris wheel and a satellite city named after the city-state's ruler.

My only question: what do you do with the perp?


Related: Luxury Cars Abandoned in Dubai


Hat tip: BB.

Obama Department of Energy grants loans based on careful technology review and campaign contributions, but mostly campaign contributions

Watchdog group Cause of Action offers the following illustration that perfectly depicts the corruption laced throughout the Obama administration:

Cause of Action was able to determine, through publicly available data combined with a FOIA production, that for corporations who have received a loan guarantee of any amount, the likelihood that it made campaign contributions increases significantly. Of the data available, 95% (.95) of DOE loan recipients with less than $1 billion in annual revenue documented political contributions by the organization or senior level staff. Comparatively, only 31% (.319489) of similarly sized organizations that did not receive loans made political contributions in one way or another...

...The program itself, while touting its ability to create jobs, has proven riddled with pitfalls and failures and may in fact be taking away jobs from other areas of industry—ones that may prove more valuable to the citizens who fund DOE LGPs with their tax dollars.

As if to highlight this abuse of the public trust, Obama's failed electric car company Fisker is essentially closing its doors, having burned a fifth of a billion dollars. $200 million of your money.

Once again, the American public lost when the Obama administration attempted to pick “winners and losers” in the free market. Today the electric car company Fisker Automotive, which received nearly $200 million in taxpayer money, is laying off three-fourths of its U.S. workers.

The Anaheim, CA-based start up has failed at pretty much every level – especially when it comes to the company’s ultra expensive luxury electric hybrid, the Karma (what a name!), which is assembled in Finland and received a green-energy loan to transition the assembly to the U.S., something that never happened.

This losing tax-subsidized venture joins other past losers like the Obama-subsidized Volt that gets 40 miles per battery charge, or like the Obama-subsidized Tesla that turns into a “brick” when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair.

This is really just the latest manifestation of the administration’s crony capitalism as their green energy buddies benefit from this atrocious waste of taxpayer money. Americans really need to get outraged by these wasteful ventures. As we’ve seen time and time again, We the People are always stuck subsidizing the left’s “losers.”

So what’s the solution and where do Americans go with our outrage? Stand up against the crony capitalism and elect only those who understand and will let America’s marketplace dictate economic successes, instead of letting politicians (some who have never run any business nor even worked in the private sector) choose free enterprises’ winners and losers. Take a stand, friends. Nothing will change unless you do.

- Sarah Palin

When the complete history of the Obama administration is written, it will make Nixon's years in office look squeaky clean by comparison. I kid you not.


Hat tip: Seth.

Possibly the Most Diabolically Cool Station Wagon Ever

Executive Summary: Daddy like.

Everyone knows that the Chevrolet Corvette is offered in both a coupe and convertible version - quite usual body versions for a sports car. In the past few months, however, another body version has become famous: the shooting brake. While we are pretty sure Chevy will never offer a shooting brake Corvette, the guys over Callaway have developed such a model.


Even crazier is that, if the company will have enough orders for it, the new AeroWagon - as it is being called - will be put into production. Callaway is currently taking orders for the model and announced the modifications will cost about $15,000.

The car’s rear hatch will be made of carbon-fiber structural components, which were developed using Callaway’s proprietary Resin Transfer Molding process. This way it will be both lightweight and strong. Callaway also announced that its new model will exceed 200 mph, making us believe it will use something different than the standard 450-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 engine seen in the new Stingray.

Because every American family needs a station wagon capable of 200 mph.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

OBAMANOMICS 101: Four out of Five Americans aged 18 to 34 say economy makes it hard to afford a... car

Not a home. A car. Ain't Democrat policies grand?


It's indeed ironic that the millennials who overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama are going to be those devastated most by his policies in the years to come.


Hat tip: Jalopnik.

Smart Car: Driver killed after her micro-sized vehicle hits a... motorcycle

"Smart" isn't the brand name I'd use to describe a vehicle like this.

A woman who died in hospital after a collision between her car and a motorcycle in Surrey has been named as Freda Lawry.

The crash between the Smart car and the bike happened on 27 January on the A245 Byfleet Road in Cobham...

The motorcyclist, a man in his 30s, was taken to George's Hospital in Tooting, where he remains in a serious, but stable condition, Surrey Police said.

President Obama's mandate for vehicles to reach 54 miles-per-gallon over the next few years means that more people will needlessly die. And that's not me guessing, that's the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency.

In order for auto makers to hit the government imposed mileage standards new cars will have to lose weight. Strong metals like steel will be replaced with light weight metals or plastics. But while these cars of the future will get great gas mileage they will also have less bulk to protect drivers and passengers from injury or death in a crash.

...The NHTSA, Brookings Institution, Harvard School of Public Health, National Academy of Sciences and USA Today discovered a shocking reality. Even past and current mileage standards have resulted in thousands of additional fatalities, and tens of thousands of serious injuries, every year – above what would have happened if the government had not imposed those standards.

They also learned that drivers in lightweight cars were up to twelve times more likely to die in a crash – and far more likely to suffer serious injury and permanent disabilities.

Increasing mileage requirements by a whopping 19 mpg above current rules will make nearly all cars even less safe than they are today.

When President Obama says, in regards to gun control, "if we can only save one child," we know he's engaged in demagoguery.

Thousands die each year thanks to insane CAFE standards and Democrats could care less.

GEE, WHO COULDA PREDICTED IT? Sales of Electric Vehicles Collapse in January

Never mind that the United States sits on hundreds or thousands of years of fossil fuel supplies. Never mind that. The federal government wants you to drive electric cars. The problem is, you ain't buyin' em.

EV sales had shown minor signs of life in the last quarter of 2012, only to collapse sharply in January. “Sales of the Chevrolet Volt, the Toyota Prius Plug-In and Nissan Leaf each had deep dropoffs in January from December,” Reuters says.

“Even after accounting for the fact that January is one of the slowest months of the year for auto sales, the dropoff for plug-in electric cars was considerable,” Michelle Krebs of Edmunds told the wire. According to Krebs, consumers are opting instead for less-expensive standard hybrids, rather than plug-in electric cars. OEMS blame other factors, such as limited supply, model year changeovers, or changeovers from Japanese to U.S. production, as it is the case for the Nissan LEAF. GM says January sales were down for the Volt because people bought before the end of the year to gain the 2012 tax credit. Which may have been the power behind the last quarter rise of the still tiny segment...

Ain't central planning grand?

I mean, how many billions of dollars did this administration waste on electric cars and batteries when the technology just isn't ready? When the full history of the Obama green energy program is written (starting with Solyndra, Fisker, A123 Systems, Tesla, etc.), it will make the Teapot Dome Scandal look like a shoplifting incident.

Thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts' outrageous Obamacare decision, though, it would seem the federal government has the legal right to command you to buy electric vehicles. So we got that goin' for us.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

DADDY LIKE: Mercedes to unveil Porsche 911-fighter, the SLC

Schwing!

...Car Magazine is reporting that the Porsche 911-fighting "Baby SLS" coupe could be on sale by 2015. Riding on a modified SLS AMG chassis, the smaller and lighter SLC could be priced in the sub-$100,000 price bracket.

We'd already heard that the new car would feature conventional doors (instead of SLS-like gullwing doors), but this report focuses on some of the possible powertrains Mercedes-Benz is likely to use. At launch, the SLC could offer a pair of V8-powered models – a 485-horsepower SLC and a 585-hp SLC S – both being powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. About a year after launch, a new V6 model could emerge giving the SLC an estimated 333 horsepower and its lowest price point.

It also sounds like the car's name hasn't been completely finalized as some people within Mercedes are favoring a return of the SLR name.

One can dream, can't one?


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

The Infiniti Q50 -- the forthcoming replacement for the G37...

Personally, I would take a rain-check on the reported hybrid and diesel nonsense:

Feast your eyes upon the all-new 2014 Infiniti Q50. Say what you will about Infiniti's new Q and QX naming system, but after looking at the new Q50 unveiled today at the Detroit Auto Show and checking out its feature list, we're having a hard time coming up with any additional criticisms. The highlights of the Q50, which goes on sale this summer in the US, include the eye-catching design, innovative cabin technology and a fuel-efficient hybrid model.

The Infiniti G has always had a focus on leading-edge styling, and its replacement is no different... Compared to the current G Sedan, the Q50 is longer, wider and lower than its predecessor, and it's also more aerodynamic with a drag coefficient of just 0.26, putting in between the Chevrolet Volt (0.28) and the Toyota Prius (0.25).

...There are also numerous apps that come preloaded into the system, and a new i-Key feature allows the car to recognize up to four different keys, allowing each driver to customize as many as 96 vehicle settings. As for the rest of the interior, it gets the same styling we've come to expect from Infiniti.

The base engine for the Q50 is carried over from the G37 with a 3.7-liter V6 producing 328 horsepower and 269 pound feet of torque, but the big news in the powertrain department is the addition of a hybrid model. Using a similar system to what is now known as the M35h (soon to go by the Q70 name), the Q50 Hybrid is powered by a 3.5-liter V6 paired to a 50 kW motor and compact lithium ion battery to give a total power output of 354 hp. Fuel economy estimates were not released for the hybrid, but in the M35h, this system is rated at 27 mpg city and 32 mpg highway; being newer and lighter, we wouldn't be surprised to see much better numbers for the Q50 version. Both versions of the car use a seven-speed automatic with rev matching, and the Q50 will come standard with rear-wheel drive and offer all-wheel drive as an option. Additional powertrains will eventually be added for global markets, but these have not been announced either.

A separate report last week confirms that the G37 Coupe will be replaced with a Q50 iteration, but photos of said configuration are scarce indeed.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.