Cars, Candidates, Loans, and Bailouts

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Business | Opel talks break down in Berlin

BBC NEWS | Business | US begins GM bankruptcy planning

 

[dpeilow]

BBC NEWS | Business | Magna 'agrees to buy GM Europe'

Canadian car parts maker Magna International has reached an agreement in principle to rescue GM Europe, owner of Opel and Vauxhall, reports say.

The agreement was reached with General Motors, but will need to be approved by the German government, which will provide funding to the new owner.

 

[TEG]

With bankruptcy looming, a new GM begins to emerge - USATODAY.com

 

[TEG]

GM Common Stock Is Worth More Than You Think -- Seeking Alpha

 

[TEG]

GM files for bankruptcy, Chrysler sale cleared

 

[TEG]

Obama's plan to save GM: bankruptcy, $30 billion

 

[vfx]

Michael Moore: "Goodbye, GM"

 

[dpeilow]

It's almost as if he reads TMC...

 

[dpeilow]

Electrification of vehicles will be key to Magna's future

 

[dpeilow]

Interesting article.

GM's demise a long time coming - Opinion

I liked this quote:

Quite accurately, you could say GM is a health care provider that finances its operations by selling cars

 

[dpeilow]

$30 Billion more to GM. How much to Tesla?

So this is going to "save" the now bankrupt GM. Wonderful. If it works. How about, though, the Feds investing, say, "just" $27 billion more in GM while putting, say, $2 Billion in Tesla Motors, then spread around the other Billion among other U.S. start-ups and innovators? Which would stretch a total $30 Bil further ?

 

[TEG]

Is Obama Playing God With the American Electric Car? : TreeHugger
Beware of Obama's 'Battery Gold Rush' | Marc Gunther on GreenBiz.com

 

[dpeilow]

Reader Response from 'Watthead' Defends Big Government | Green Business | Reuters

Finally, as a (mostly) side note, since you cite Tesla Motors targeting luxury car markets with their electric Roadster as a reason they should not receive federal incentives: The reason Tesla is starting with a $100k electric luxury car is because new technologies are routinely more expensive at their launch. If there isn’t a market for early adopters, the technology will never reach the economies of scale and spur the learning by doing (and continued innovation) that drops the price and improves the performance of the technology over time. Think flat screen TVs or cell phones: The first ones are far more expensive than most can afford. But now these technologies have reached economies of scale that drove dramatic price reductions and the technologies are affordable and (because of that) ubiquitous.

Tesla is looking to use luxury buyers -- who routinely pay more for the cool new thing -- to drive those initial economies of scale. They plan to produce the Roadster on a scale of 1,000s and at a cost of $100k. Their next model will use the same (and now cheaper) components and batteries at a larger scale and will be a luxury sedan selling for around $60k and at a scale of 10s of thousands. They then plan to produce a $35k-40k sedan at a scale of 100ks per year, if all goes well. That’s just smart. Please don’t use that as a reason not to incentivize their technology’s development with public investment. If the government were willing to directly purchase batteries and serve as the early adopter themselves -- as we did for microchips, radios, radar, lasers, early computers, and jet engines -- we could bring this emerging technology to scale and down in price much more rapidly and pave the way for the kind of dramatic private sector innovation that occurred AFTER the government purchasing (and loss-leading) dropped these technologies in price. In short: We should be seeing far more direct public investment in the technologies to enable electrified transportation, not less.

 

[doug]

 

[AnOutsider]

haha, nice one

 

[vfx]

The Site

Government Motors | GM Retardation | Corporate Disinformation | Don't sue us

Articles:
*GM Files For Divorce From Saturn

*GM Writes Tell-All AutoBio, "My Shame, My Triumph"

*Auto Shops Worried We'll Start Buying Cars That Don't Suck

*Hummers To Become Sought After Collectors Items For Douche Bags

Facebook too!

Pretend like you can be friends with us. We'll pretend too, and then we'll close down your dads car dealership.

 

[Serge]

If true, great news expected on 06/23/09.

"Energy secretary Steven Chu will be making the announcement at Ford headquarters in Dearborn, MI on Tuesday morning"

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that tomorrow the US Department of Energy will finally announce the first recipients of low interest loans under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program. It looks like the first batch of winners will include Ford, Nissan and Tesla Motors.

 

[vfx]

"Energy secretary Steven Chu will be making the announcement at Ford headquarters in Dearborn, MI on Tuesday morning"

Gentlemen, start your checkbooks...

 

[flabby]

Already started:smile: Money down for a model S a few months ago.

 

[TEG]

New GM exits bankruptcy | Reuters