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Reinvent Detroit ArchivesStop Stalling: Time to Hit the Reset Button on Detroit
The proposed bailout is an obvious stall tactic that will amount to nothing in the long term unless more dramatic actions to restructure and reinvent the American auto industry are taken.
Last night, the US House of Representatives approved $14 billion in emergency
loans to keep GM and Chrysler on life support into the new year.
Senate Republicans are in revolt though and may block passage without new amendments to allow more dramatic restructuring of the company's debt.
"If we don't have the forced restructuring plans in place, many of us don't believe that American car companies will come out of this in a competitive position and the taxpayers' money will be wasted," Senator John Ensign told the Washington Post (R-Nev.). I hate to say it, but I'm forced to agree with Republicans on this account: $14 billion to prop up GM and Chrysler until Obama takes office is an obvious half measure, a stall tactic that will merely punt the tough decisions down the line another couple months. While it may buy us a month or three, the proposed bailout will amount to nothing in the long term unless more dramatic actions to restructure and reinvent the American auto industry are taken. Continue reading "Stop Stalling: Time to Hit the Reset Button on Detroit" » Energy Innovation for a Better World
More than ever we need an Apollo Program to develop Green Energy, and the sooner Obama develops and implements policies to make it so, the better.
By Marty Hoffert It's hard to believe that we have to pay Detroit with massive government bailout money to get them to innovate the kind of green, high tech cars that could save their own companies. But that's the case. Tom Friedman opined recently that Steve Jobs might make a good CEO for General Motors -- Apple being a poster child for an entrepreneurial company whose business model is based on continued high-tech innovation. Long enough have US auto companies locked in the paradigm of large SUVs and trucks subsidized by multinational oil companies and sheikdoms. Rather than go to the government, the automakers should seek financial help from the oil companies they have enriched for years. Only fair that US car makers, who profited by addicting us to petroleum gas-guzzlers (don't tell me it was consumer demand when they manipulated demand by advertising those sexy Hummers) and now face bankruptcy, should ask Big Oil for a bailout. What's $30 billion to Exxon-Mobil? Bridge to Nowhere?
"This would be a bridge, not a bailout."
-Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and the man in charge of drafting the auto industry
Faced with the news that more than half a million jobs were lost last month, politicians in Congress and both the Bush and Obama administrations have been jolted into action on a bill to bailout the auto industry, whose collapse, experts say, could result in more than three million lost jobs. In testimonies last Friday, the CEOs of Chevrolet and GM said that without an immediate cash infusion they would not make it through the New Year. Ford, while not in such dire straits, still requires a nine billion dollar line of credit to avoid catastrophic collapse. Too Big To Fail? Too Big, Period.
In the end, we'll have a new kind of American auto company - leaner and nimbler, and under a new class of managers - and a new kind of America auto industry.
The executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler made yet another trek to Washington DC this week - this time ditching the corporate jets to drive hybrid cars - and once again pled for a federal bailout to prop up their struggling companies. Up to $34 billion taxpayer dollars are apparently all that stands between at least two of the "Big Three" automakers and bankruptcy. GM's executives told Congress the company will fail very, very soon unless it receives at least $12 billion in loans in the coming months. Chrysler warned they could go belly up by year's end without $7 billion in government aid. Even Ford, which is doing a bit better than its two Detroit brethren, is asking for an open, taxpayer-funded line of credit of up to $9 billion dollars. All this means its time for Congress and the American public to face two basic facts. Energizing the Auto Industry by Investing in Innovation
"It's over folks" That's how a columnist at the Detroit News described the state of the American Auto Industry. But is this really the end of the road for Detroit? Continue reading "Energizing the Auto Industry by Investing in Innovation" » How I Will Miss the Stick Shift: Reflections on the Reinvention of the US Automobile Industry
By Robert Margolis In 2006 this writer most likely purchased the last stick shift automobile he would own. It took weeks to find a new car that was equipped with what appears to be a fading technology. Although I enjoy the greater feeling of control provided by a manual transmission, it is most likely when I purchase a replacement vehicle, it will probably not only have a different transmission, but it will also contain many other technological differences reflecting a reinvented US automobile industry This essay will discuss both the fading technologies and the up and coming technologies (e.g., exit the stick shift and enter the continuously variable transmission) that will transform the US automobile industry. Setting a 2012 Milestone for the Detroit Three
A pre-condition for each company receiving additional federal funds be its commitment to have produced and offered for sale 60,000 new plug-in vehicles by the end of 2011.
Developments in Washington have become "fast and furious." From day to day, it appears Congress (especially but not only Republicans) may be insufficiently receptive to steps to keep the Detroit Three alive. Many are focusing more on blame for past mis-steps than on a responsible appreciation of the consequences for communities and for our green automotive future if these companies go under. We hope that this turns out to be brinkmanship and that Congress will in fact act next week. (If they ignore the crisis, attitudes reflected in aphorisms like, "they made their own bed" or "let them stew in their own juices" -- or "what, me worry?" will prove to be short-sighted.) The California Cars Initiative (CalCars.org) developed what follows as a contribution to an effort by a number of organizations to provide Washington lawmakers with specific conditions for additional federal aid to automakers. We're not suggesting this is the only criterion -- and we hope that the issue actually does come before Congress. Next week the U.S. auto industry will fight for its life in the chambers and hallways of Congress. No one who recognizes the industry's central position -- and the lives and livelihoods that depend on its continuation -- wants to see any of the Detroit Three fail. They need immediate life support -- and a medium- and long-term way to return to growth and prosperity. Continue reading "Setting a 2012 Milestone for the Detroit Three" » Seeing Our Future In The American Car
A new framework to transform and revitalize America's auto industry.
By Jeffrey Feldman Up to this point in our history, when Americans imagined 'the future,' they thought about cars that could fly, a cognitive frame inherited from old time TV shows like Flash Gordon and The Jetsons. Instead of that cartoon image, we would be wise to start seeing our future in terms of three far-reaching goals for the American auto industry: sustainable engines, sustainable factories, and sustainable communities. A Real Grand Bargain: Radically Re-invent the American Automobile
Forget incrementally improvements in fuel economy. It's time to radically re-invent the American automobile, recapture the competitive edge in automotive technology and ensure that the average car gets 100 mpg by 2020.
With a new bailout for Detroit on the table, there's a lot of talk about getting some "grand bargain" with automakers out of the deal: automakers will agree to some terms, like producing more efficient vehicles, in exchange for the loans. In fact, the direct loans approved by the 2007 Energy Bill require auto companies to use the funds to retool factories that produce vehicles that get 25% better fuel economy than the average vehicle in it's class. That's a start. But the real grand bargain, in my opinion, is to bust out of this incremental improvements mentality for fuel economy. We don't need incremental improvements, we need exponential improvements in fuel economy. Here's how it could work... Continue reading "A Real Grand Bargain: Radically Re-invent the American Automobile" » |
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