Think the government’s obsession with carbon dioxide emissions is a bit extreme? Here’s more evidence for you, courtesy of the latest print edition of National Review.
Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is the worst car salesman ever. Speaking about his firm’s 500e electric car at the Brookings Institution, he told those assembled: “I hope you don’t buy it, because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000.” The electric Fiat exists not because of consumer demand — there is hardly any — but to satisfy zero-emissions rules in California and other jurisdictions that impose them. Fiat’s plan is to sell the minimum number of electric cars it is required by law to sell, at whatever loss it must endure, and then to sell not one more. Marchionne added that if automakers are forced to suffer losses in order to satisfy political whimsy, then they will be back in Washington asking for another bailout.
