Obama’s Chevy Volt, Fiat 500 Among Biggest Flops of 2011

The Chevy Volt and Fiat 500 were among the top product flops of 2011, according to Yahoo Finance. The cars were among the type of fuel-efficient vehicles touted by President Barack Obama as being the future of the government-owned GM and bailed-out Chrysler. The Volt, Chevy’s entry into the government-subsidized electric vehicle market, came in as the third worst product flop of 2011, behind only Netflix’s disastrous Qwikster service, and a much-derided push-up bikini bra for preteen girls from Abercrombie & Fitch. Obama himself drove the Volt in a July 30, 2011 visit to a GM manufacturing facility in Hamtrack, Michigan...more

And then there's this:

Obama Motors Is on Fire—Literally President Obama's electric car vision is off to a hot start. First the heavily subsidized Chevy Volt started catching fire. Then government-backed Fisker Automotive had to recall all its cars due to a fire hazard. Late last month, Fisker, the electric car startup that is busy spending its $529 million in Department of Energy loans, announced a recall of its entire fleet of luxury Karmas because of a faulty battery that posed a fire risk. The battery maker at fault — A123 Systems — is another Obama grantee, having gotten $380 million in taxpayer support to make advanced car batteries...n May, a Chevy Volt caught fire three weeks after a government crash test of the car. In follow-up tests in November, a second Volt caught fire after a test crash, and a third began to smoke and emit sparks...

So if  gov't grants & low interest loans to the producers and large tax credits to the buyers haven't worked, what will? Why more gov't intervention of course.  The IBD editorial concludes:

But this is cold comfort if Obama makes good on his pledge to get 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. If government grants, loans and tax breaks aren't enough, Obama plans to force sales through increasingly tight "corporate average fuel economy" (CAFE) standards.