I don't know how the above was modded Insightful.
The batteries are a variable cost, much like the steel to make the car, the tires on the car, the labor that is used to build each car, etc. The cost is associated with each car built. Constant costs are fixed costs. These would be the costs associated with the plant the cars are built in, the robotics used to build the cars, the building maintenance of the plant, etc.
Let's think of it another way: If the Chevy was to make 10,001 Volts, they would have to purchase 1 more battery pack to go in that extra car (technically, although it does run on gas only).
I think you are mistaking marginal costs and constant costs. Marginal costs are costs associated with making extra units or adding production. A great example is if Chevy took the same plant and decided to make 12,000 Volts. This likely means that they would have to pay overtime and/or add another shift to the plant. This is the additional marginal costs. Marginal costs are often associated with labor because there is only so much work a person can do before they have diminishing returns (get tired and do less work). That being said, goal of every profit driven company is to match its marginal costs with its marginal revenue (i.e. for the additional cost of adding one more unit equals the additional $ in profit of making that exact unit~). This is the point when a company has reached maximum profitability, after this it makes sense to add capacity usually via additional fixed costs, which creates a new average total cost, a new average variable cost, and a new average marginal costs. Marginal costs are hard to conceptualize because they exist in reality but we look at them abstractly and only exist for an exact set of parameters; most companies and people don't think along these lines, they think of adding production capacity, when we can't squeeze any more production out the existing facilities and labor.
Thanks for taking me back to college! It is nice to finally use my econ degree for something!
http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/a2-micro-supply-shortrun-costs.html
Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gallo#Gallo-Profaci_war
http://tomfolsom.com/blog/
The reason that you can't get DSL without a landline is due to the tariff that the telecom company serves under. If the telephone company operates the telecom and their tariff is written that you need to have a land-line to get Internet, that is the only way it is going to happen.
This goes back to how phone companies were set up as old school utilities with regulation while the cable company is not classified as a required utility in an area.
Often what causes the change in an area is if the local phone company has competition in the form of CLEC. The CLEC is usually established as a telecom company that happens to do pots vs. a phone company that happens to do telecom services. This usually causes the local exchange carrier to have to go back and re-write their tariff for the serving area to become more competitive.
"If I do not want others to quote me, I do not speak." -- Phil Wayne
