As one of the relatively few plug-in car options available in the U.S., and a symbol of GM’s shift toward new technologies, the Volt’s impending demise is a blow to proponents of vehicle electrification. Yet on the face of it, it seems like more of a ding than a total crash.

You may not have heard, but electric vehicles are just another one-percenter boondoggle, Jay Gatsby’s cream-colored Rolls Royce reincarnated and partly paid for by you, the toiling masses, via various subsidies.