Electric and Hybrid Car Buzzzz

What noise does an electric car make anyway? Is it a buzzing noise or is it a humming noise? Anyway, the last maker of the stage coach probably made the best built carriage there ever was. They most likely had the best suspension, ultimate comfort, and ease of access for passengers and drivers. It would be fair to say that General Motors is not going to follow in the footsteps of the last Stage Coach manufacturer with the launching of its new Electric Motor plant in Maryland. But the competition already has a leg up in the market...

GM to build electric motors in Maryland
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Betting that hybrid and electric vehicles will play a growing role on American highways, General Motors is expected to announce Tuesday a $246 million investment to add production of electric motors at its White Marsh, Md., manufacturing plant.

The decision reflects confidence at GM and other automakers that the "electrification" of the U.S. fleet is not far away, with GM officials likening the importance of electric-motor technology to that of engines in gasoline cars.

The electric-motor project is expected to create about 200 jobs and will be funded in part by a $105 million grant from the Department of Energy, the automaker said. - Washington Post

Electric car technology is taking off in the auto industry and rightfully so given the price of gas and oil over the last few years. Speculations on where the prices for oil and gas will go is anyone’s guess but one thing is certain, fleets of electric cars, hybrid cars and hybrid trucks will not be pulling up to any gas pump anytime in the future. Good news for consumers and the environment but bad news for OPEC.

Just doing a quick Google search I came across some interesting news on new Hybrid and EV cars. According to All Cars Electric, Mitsubishi is dropping prices and moving up its production of I-MiEV based on demand to 30,000 cars per year in 2013 which is 10,000 more than previous projections. Toyota is boosting production in 2011 of its new hybrid cars to one million units based on the growing demand that they are seeing from customers for their product line of cars. Acura is entering the hybrid market with its TSX model with great expectations for success.

Ford is gearing up to bring to market its Focus EV model with the conversion of one of its SUV plants in Michigan. Ford is also promising three additional EV’s by 2012. Last but not least is Volvo pulling up the rear with its C30 EV which has been delayed in part by Volvo as they look to beef up the car and make it one of the safest electric cars on the road.

Take that and blow it out your oil well OPEC!

Papamoka

Kids Allowance Pulled at GM and Chrysler

There comes a time when every parent has to pull the weekly allowance to their child. When your child outspends or refuses to change spending habits you just can’t give them advances on their allowance month after month. Junior (aka your child) needs to learn the value of a dollar and seek out work to earn their own money to pay for those hundred and fifty dollar sneakers. Junior needs to know how hard it is to earn the dollars needed to pay for an expensive prom dress or tux. Junior needs to know that mom and dad can’t give them everything simply because they want it.

Even as liberal as I am, I have had thoughts of doubt about the recent bailout of the auto industries in America. The auto industry alone is so intertwined with many other industries in our nation that at times I honestly believe that we should be doing everything we can to save them. Then again, we can’t afford as a nation to continually poor dollars down a bottomless well. GM and Chrysler should have cut expenses and costs to the bone by now since the first Bush Presidential era bailout but they really have not. The United Auto Workers should be more than willing to work with them given the number of union members employed at both corporations but they are waiting for the next bailout as well to drop. Suppliers, distributors, show rooms and the list goes on should be contributing to the savings of these two companies but they are not. This all spells bankruptcy for both GM and Chrysler and maybe that is not a bad thing for them at this point in time.

President Obama spoke today on this very subject and Yahoo News has it covered with the full speech…

In recent months, my Auto Task Force has been reviewing requests by General Motors and Chrysler for additional government assistance as well as plans developed by each of these companies to restructure, modernize, and make themselves more competitive.
Year after year, decade after decade, we have seen problems papered-over and tough choices kicked down the road, even as foreign competitors outpaced us. Well, we have reached the end of that road.

We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish. But we also cannot continue to excuse poor decisions. And we cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of tax dollars. These companies -- and this industry -- must ultimately stand on their own, not as wards of the state.

That is why the federal government provided General Motors and Chrysler with emergency loans to prevent their sudden collapse at the end of last year -- only on the condition that they would develop plans to restructure. In keeping with that agreement, each company has submitted a plan to restructure.

But after careful analysis, we have determined that neither goes far enough to warrant the substantial new investments that these companies are requesting. And so today, I am announcing that my administration will offer GM and Chrysler a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions, and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars; a period during which they must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success.

What we are asking is difficult. It will require hard choices by companies. It will require unions and workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more. It will require creditors to recognise that they cannot hold out for the prospect of endless government bailouts. Only then can we ask American taxpayers who have already put up so much of their hard-earned money to once more invest in a revitalized auto industry. - Yahoo News UK/Ireland

Before you call me a UAW or Detroit automaker hate filled monster hear me out. GM and Chrysler need to grow out of the bankruptcy as better companies just like your child would do so on learning that they have to stand on their own and pay for what they can realistically afford. Something has to give and the truth is that everyone involved with making a profit from GM and Chrysler products has to own up to it and decide if they want to work for and profit from the same company in the next couple of months or twenty years down the road. Everyone involved in these two companies survival needs to knuckle down and offer savings to save paychecks and jobs at all levels of the corporations survival structure. That works from the guy or gal cleaning the toilets to the people supplying steel, Union Workers, health benefit suppliers, guys and gals on the production floor in management, and retired workers. Everyone getting a piece of the GM and Chrysler pie needs to push a slice back. President Obama more or less fired the CEO of GM today because he came to the taxpayer trough. It was Rick Wagoner’s job to save GM. He didn’t act fast enough and he got his just reward. The details don’t matter, he didn’t do his job and his stock holders should have tarred and feathered him over a year ago!

Nobody wins if either company fails.

A very good point was made today by the Governor of Michigan, Jennifer M. Granholm, we can’t support them but they do play a part in our national security as far as having an industrial complex that can convert quickly for full scale military production. I’m thinking she was talking about WWII and the complete military industrial transformation. That isn’t a good selling point to the discussion but it is a point to really think about.

I’ll toss my cost savings into the ring, I bet that I could save GM and Chrysler millions per year each if they changed their supplier standards and let a guy like me quote their wire and cable needs. They won’t, but I could save them a bundle and the product I would supply would all be made in the USA and the same regulatory safe product they use today. The standards and requirements built into wire and cable design for all of the automotive industry adds hundreds of millions to the cost per year when a simple guy like me could supply the same damn product for mega savings without all the extended BS specifications that limit competition. Email me if you are a buyer at GM or Chrysler!

I’d put the email address in this post but I have enough offers from African nation people willing to split millions with me if I just give my banking and personal contact info.

I’m just one guy willing to bid competitively on their business. Who else is out there willing to jump in to save GM and Chrysler some serious cash in the supply chain? Step up boys and girls and be heard here! My company is willing to save GM and Chrysler some money, who else is willing to step up to save American jobs?

Papamoka

Interesting article over at the Gun Toting Liberal on this same topic...

Edsel, Yugo, and GM seek more Bailout Cash

It comes as no surprise that GM is coming to the taxpayer trough again but I would have to say that the executives at GM need to learn how to fish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge union worker supporter and as liberal as the day is long but this company along with Chrysler have already come to the taxpayers for a bailout and the billions of dollars went through their pockets like water in a spaghetti strainer. It’s only been three freaking months!

Did they slash executive pays across the board by ten, twenty or even thirty percent to save the company some money? Did they do a damn thing to save the company any money as the billions of taxpayer dollars came into the “General” funds account? Besides taking down clocks and changing light bulbs, lowering the thermostat from 72 to 68 degrees, did they do anything? I think you already know that answer.

Over at the Wall Street Journal they have this to say on the second tapping of the well by Detroit’s automakers…

GM Seeks $16.6 Billion More in U.S. Aid

By JOHN D. STOLL, SHARON TERLEP and ALEX P. KELLOGG

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC told the federal government they need at least $21.6 billion more combined in bailout loans to put them on the road to recovery, and outlined possible scenarios if either auto maker should have to file for bankruptcy protection.

Both GM and Chrysler, in the recovery plans submitted Tuesday to the U.S. Treasury, argue that bankruptcy would be more costly and drawn out than government-funded restructurings.

General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner speaks at a press conference at the company's world headquarters Feb. 17, 2009, in Detroit, Mich.

GM said it might need as much as $100 billion in financing from the government if it were to go through the traditional bankruptcy process. Rick Wagoner, GM's chairman and chief executive, said the bankruptcy scenarios are "risky" and "costly" and would only be pursued as a last resort.

Chrysler's plan said the company would likely have to file for Chapter 11 protection if it doesn't get additional loans from the government and concessions from unions, creditors and dealers. It said it would need $24 billion in financing if the company were to file for bankruptcy. But company officials said in a conference call that they believe a Chapter 11 filing is "not necessary" for Chrysler's survival.

The submission of the recovery plans was required under terms of the U.S. loans the auto makers received in early January. The plans, however, described only a relatively few major new restructuring steps they plan to take to cut costs and downsize their operations. - Wall Street Journal

With this latest grab for taxpayer cash in three months time comes GM with an announcement to layoff 47,000 people and talks about bankruptcy. Did anyone go over the fine print of the original loans from the government to GM if they filed bankruptcy? Does Uncle Sam and all his siblings (you and I) get screwed legally in a money for nothing deal? If the government demanded shares and the company is found insolvent, does that or does that not make the value of those government held shares at zero, null, nada, kaput?

I don’t know what the answer to this whole mess is other than absolute frustration and disgust. If GM and Chrysler were competing mom and pop stores on the corner of Main and Elm Street and they couldn’t sell the products then simple economics dictate what happens next. If both mom and pop stores were given a loan just three months ago to get through difficult times but both stores wasted the time and money then the doors need to be shuttered. I’m liberal, I’m a moderate, but I am not a fool.

The government should demand the CEO’s and Board of Directors of each companies resignation if any more cash is to follow. Insert Mitt Romney at GM at the helm and Jack Welch at Chrysler. People may not like what Mitt Romney or Jack Welch can do but you have to give them credit for knowing business and knowing how to turn situations around under pressure. The alternative choice is that GM and Chrysler go the way of the Edsel or the Yugo.

I think both sides of the political aisle can agree that management at both of these companies is clueless. Can our economy afford to let them just die off? I don’t think so and thus we have a major political dilemma building and boiling.

Tip to self: Buy stock in junkyards that specialize in GM and Chrysler parts.

Papamoka

Shutdown and Breakdown in Detroit

Video Link Courtesy of MSNBC

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Uttt OHHHH! The Big Three automakers are shutting down plants and that is not a good thing. Detroit is closing up shop because cars are not moving off the lots in the dealerships all across America. Trust me, this is not going to be an American made auto manufacturer phenomenon. Chrysler is shutting down all of its plants for thirty days and Ford is looking at similar options. GM is planning major shutdowns at plants as well and the ripple effect is not going to be good for the world economy. Over at Market Watch they have this to say and I have my own opinion on it afterward…

Chrysler to shut assembly lines for at least a month

Rival Ford takes similar steps, extending shutdown times at most plants

By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:57 p.m. EST Dec. 17, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Chrysler LLC, struggling to keep afloat as it awaits word on a federal lifeline, said Wednesday it will idle all of its 30 plants for at least a month in an effort to bring output closer in line with plunging demand for new cars and trucks.

The privately held carmaker said it will shut its assembly lines at the end of Friday's shift and keep them closed through at least Jan. 19, extending a holiday shutdown that was already put in place. Under the current union contract, idled workers still receive most of their benefits and wages during the production stoppage.

Separately, Ford Motor Co. announced that it will shut down most of its North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, according to the Associated Press.
Automakers typically close their factories for a couple of weeks over the two weeks during holidays and often, as in Ford's case, target specific plants for even longer idle periods to keep a lid on inventory during times of slack demand. Yet Chrysler's move to idle its entire operation for at least a month reflects just how dire the situation is in Detroit.

"This is definitely out of the ordinary," Edmunds.com analyst Jesse Toprak said. "I've never seen this kind of shutdown for this long, and if you read the language Chrysler used in the release, they're leaving the door open for another extension."

Toprak added that the company will probably take a hard look at its December sales results, which he expects to be down 45% from a year ago, and decide whether to keep blue-collar workers from assembly lines even longer. - Market Watch (Link not working?)

It doesn’t matter anymore what side of the issue you stand on when it comes to the bailout for Detroit and its automakers. The Congress has spoken and the auto industry in America was told to go screw itself. That is a double edged sword so to speak.

Granted the UAW contracts will still pay many of the idled workers almost the same pay for a short shutdown but they can’t get paid forever if the companies end up folding. All of the investment capital that the Big Three used as leverage for long term loans was based on the price per share and all of them are in the toilet as far as share price goes. Wall Street can not and will not offer capital to these companies because the collateral in shares is just not there anymore. The Congress and the Republican members made that a reality by not backing the industry simply because they could. Rather than looking at the bigger picture, Republicans in the Congress looked to see who was in their own back yard and all they could see was Toyota, Honda and the list goes on of foreign owned plants here in the United States. Good for them, they covered their own political ass. Or did they?

While those same Republican leaders were looking out the back step they didn’t see their neighbor Joe that drives twenty minutes to a little mom and pop owned machine shop that just makes screws that go to Detroit. Those screws are installed by the thousands every day by Detroit workers in American made cars. All the little screws do is hold one little piece in a pick up or mid size car down so that another piece of the truck or car can be installed over it with those same little screws holding that part down. Those little tiny machined screws have paid all the wages and healthcare benefits for the five or six people running the actual machines that made them for decades. Not to mention mom and pop put a couple of kids through good schools, then good colleges, and then had those kids buy homes in the local area. Those five or six machine operators buy groceries locally, buy homes or renovate existing homes at the local hardware or home improvement center. They pay local and state taxes that pay for schools, roads, police and fire. They spend their hard earned paychecks where they live and other people benefit from their hard earned wages making little tiny screws that ship to Detroit.

Mom and pop have to close up shop for a while because Detroit is shutting down for a spell. Pick an industry and expand the scenario however you like. There is that old saying about a butterfly beating its wings in China and it gives birth to a hurricane thousands of miles away. Bingo!

There was a reason why the government of long ago would never let Chrysler go bankrupt. It reached to far and wide into the capillaries of the American economy. Lee Iacocca rebuilt Chrysler from the ground up because he had the means to do so courtesy of an American government backed loan. He didn’t do it alone and yet they all made it work out in the end. But now it is okay to let ALL THREE automakers fail? This lack of interest by or government is totally on the Republican Party and they are more than welcome to own it. I can literally see the history books thirty years from now on the new generation of Hoover that started the second economic collapse of America and the world.

This is the never ending ripple effect and when the small business manufacturing owners start closing the doors because Detroit is no longer in business then it is in fact a DEPRESSION! Somebody please call your Congressional representative and give them an earful!

Papamoka

GM, Ford, and Chrysler Bailout is a MUST!

How is it that our government has no problem stuffing $80 Billion dollars down the throat of AIG executives as they party it up but has a problem with offering a loan to a manufacturing industry inter connected with hundreds if not thousands of other manufacturing jobs and industries all across America. Manufacturing jobs that pay the rent, pay the mortgage, make a couple of car payments and the list goes on that are all connected directly or indirectly to GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

The big three are not asking for a handout without repayment. Matter of fact they are willing to pay back all of it if they are given the chance to survive this downturn in the economy. The current leadership in the Congress and the minority party need to get this done and quickly. Over at MSNBC they have this to say on how quickly they are acting on this…

Senate to take up auto bailout bill on Monday
$25 billion bill offers aid for struggling automakers; Republicans opposed

msnbc.com news services
updated 42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate plans to take up a $25 billion bill on Monday to bail out distressed domestic auto companies, but it is unclear whether proponents can muster the necessary support.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he “plans to press forward” with emergency aid to automakers and a plan to extend unemployment insurance even though Republican backing is far from assured.

Reid plans to begin debate and hopes the Senate will conduct procedural votes early in the week.

Snip a bolt…

Still, powerful senators like Richard Shelby, R-Ala., appear willing to let the U.S. automakers collapse. Shelby said in a statement recently that the problems facing the Big Three are the product of their noncompetitive structure and not the current economic downturn.

Alabama is home to vehicle manufacturing plants operated by Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes, as well as a Toyota engine plant. - MSNBC

Dick Shelby is a moron and a fool! While he is in the great state of Alabama with all of those foreign owned auto manufacturers hounding him to not let this bailout happen I’m pretty sure his campaign for re-election coffers are filling with serious donations from Japan, Korea, and Germany. After all, the bottom line of Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, and Toyota are in fact sending the profits overseas. Way to go you ass Shelby for being a paid for spokesman for a foreign national corporate monopoly in your own state. Ten bucks says he does not even own an American made car! Any takers? How about an American made flag? How can he claim to be an American worker supporter when he just chucked the bird to more than one and ten amongst us and that includes the proud people of Alabama that don't work for his top four best friend foreign national corporations.

Dick Shelby wants to tell all of you folks that work in electronics manufacturing products that eventually end up in a GM car, a Ford car, and a Chrysler car to go screw yourself. Same thing goes with all of you people in the plastics industry that supplies the big three with molded parts, same thing goes for the huge wire and cable manufacturing market in America. All of you folks that make American made tires that the big three are buying, get a paper route and go bag groceries. Do you work in a textile mill that supplies Detroit with fabric for new cars? You just got the middle finger from Dick Shelby too! Steel workers in the foundries spread out from Pennsylvania and beyond should start filling out applications for non existent jobs in an economy that is in collapse. It isn’t Dick Shelby’s problem that you people working in his home state happen to rely on the big three automakers for your weekly paycheck. Dick Shelby says the big three should shutter the doors and with that shuttering so goes many small businesses that supplied the big three all across America. He’s an economics idiot and a moron that has no clue as to how reliant his own state is on supplying the big three American Auto Makers with parts and components to build a Chevy, a Ford, and a Dodge Ram truck!

I feel better, I vented. But I think other folks are just a little bit more interested in this conversation. Chris Matthews has this on the big three bailout with an interview with Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas…

Video Link



I think we need to add Jeb Hensarling to the list of morons and idiots when it comes to economics. Jeb wants to wave the flag of creation of thousands of new small business jobs with the same money that this bailout loan is proposing but if the big three collapse then Jeb Hensarling just committed genocide on thousands of other small businesses in his home state of Texas. What about all of their jobs at descent paying wages Jeb? Maybe they can get more than minimum wage working for your re-election campaign?

This bailout is not even close to the blank check written to Secretary Paulson to spend as he pleases. While some say that it is the big three auto makers own fault for the environment they now find themselves in I would have to beg the same argument for AIG and the blank check for Wall Street. Should there be concessions to this loan from the big three, hell yes! If the UAW (United Auto Workers) is already taking a big piece of the heat off of all three auto makers by cutting wages in half in new contracts in order to save jobs. The CEO’s, Direcetors, and management of all three can eat the same humble pie. The fact still remains that the auto industry is directly connected to one in ten jobs in America and if they collapse we are not talking about just three million jobs as Chris Matthews pointed out. We are talking thirty million jobs or more with the pressure wave of panic that will ensue when each of the big three declare bankruptcy, skip out on the debt owed to vendors and pretty much start the wave of layoffs all across America. It does not take a genius to understand how the manufacturing environment works and how so many industries are linked together not just by choice. We need more than just common sense when it comes to knowing the weakest link at the top of the food chain in our industrial society. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are asking for a loan that they will repay over time. The language of the Paulson Bailout plan is financial industry specific.

Congress and President Bush need to act quickly to save American jobs! This legislation can not wait two months to fester in the auto industry and all the sub manufacturing companies across America that service the big three in Detroit. Bail them out but use common sense in doing so.

Papamoka

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