Does the Government investment in the car industry make sense?

The Obama administration's commitment of $30 billion on Monday to General Motors Corp. as it files for bankruptcy, brings the total amount of funds allocated and promised to the auto industry to $110 billion, including bailout capital and funds to be made available for green car component suppliers. Does that make sense?

Possibly.

When BMW built a new plant in South Carolina, 17 years ago , BMW promised 2,000 direct jobs and $500 million in capital investment. By early 2008, the company reported that it had 5,400 full-time jobs at the 1,150-acre site. More than $5 billion had been invested (in 2007 dollars), much more than originally promised. In March 2008, BMW announced it would invest $750 million more in South Carolina, taking production capacity to 240,000 units by 2012. The new investment will augment the plant size to 4 million square feet.

Chrysler has less than 30,000 UAW workers. GM has 70,000. A little math and we have 100,000 active members. Remember the $110 billion figure committed to the auto industry? That is ONE MILLION DOLLARS per job. BMW created 5400 jobs with $5 billion. That is one million dollars per job.

BMW produces 45 cars per job or $1.8 million in production per worker.

GM and Chrysler should be able to meet that.

"As goes General Motors, so goes the nation."

Doug said...
The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M.-

And now, from the mold of the Novice in Chief...
Outrageous.
Everybody acts like the Company that was selling as many vehicles Worldwide as Toyota was on the ropes, in every way hopelessly uncompetitive.
(1 - 2, or 2 - 1)
When in fact, they were doing just fine, except for "Legacy Costs"

BHO Could have taken his and Rufus's Experiment in Healthcare out on the UAW "workers" at our expense (far cheaper than BHO OneCare for the nation)

...and let GM drop that anchor, hire some real labor, and get on with business.
Instead, we'll get something that makes TARP look like a beauty queen.
...and lose one of the World's Great Automakers.

Sun May 31, 11:47:00 PM EDT
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Cutting through all the bullshit, here is a sample of some of what killed GM.

Social Management GM

Diversity Management

Throughout GM, our Diversity Initiative is the process of creating and maintaining an environment that naturally enables our employees, dealers, suppliers and communities to achieve their fullest potential. We believe that diversity is the collective mixture of similarities and differences. This recognizes that managing diversity includes race and gender as well as the broader aspects of age, education level, family status, language, military status, physical abilities, religion, sexual orientation, union representation, and years of service.

We believe that workforce diversity adds to competitive advantage. As a global employer, we understand that working with a diverse group of individuals with differing backgrounds and perspectives, creates and maintains competitive advantage and assists in achieving global success. Through our Diversity Initiatives we seek to create an environment that optimizes the contributions of our diverse work force, our suppliers, customers, and the communities where we work. We recognize that it is essential that our work force structure reflects both the marketplace and our customers.

This program made enormous strides in 2000 with a number of exciting changes and improvements. With a new look, due to the development and marketing of a brand for diversity, Diversity Initiatives is fast becoming a very recognizable part of the corporation.

With the introduction of an additional core value — Individual Respect and Responsibility — our goal in 2001 is to integrate Diversity Initiatives further into the company and to engage with management. Support for this sixth core value is demonstrated on a Diversity E-card entitled, It's What's Inside that Matters. Our Diversity E-card is a multimedia CD-ROM that provides an overview of our current Diversity Strategies. The E-card was distributed to all North American GM Executives in March 2001. Diversity is also being aligned with the corporate "GoFast!" initiative, and the "GoFast!" principle is expressed through the logo with the words, "Many People, One GM, NOW."

GM's Loses its Mind

We have all had to avert our eyes from a desperate and hopeless victim of disease. It is worse when they clutch to some off-the-wall herbal remedy only served up by a shaman in some remote Mexican village. Poor and desperate GM has found a shaman.

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GM, Segway join forces to produce two-wheel personal transporter
By Sharon Terlep
Last update: 11:18 a.m. EDT April 7, 2009
By SHARON TERLEP

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) --

General Motors Corp. (GM:2.05, -0.22, -9.7%) will on Tuesday make another push into the realm of alternative vehicle technology through a joint venture with Segway Inc. to produce a two-wheeled upright personal transporter.

The auto maker is targeting a 2012 launch for its electric-powered PUMA transporter, which would also employ wireless technology to allow users to navigate in urban areas and avoid traffic congestion.

However, GM faces a crowded field of contenders in the alternative vehicle space which, like Segway's iconic but commercially-unsuccessful people mover, have to overcome the challenges of cost, convenience and public indifference.

With a clock running down to a June 1 deadline that could push the company into bankruptcy protection, GM is using the unveiling to try and demonstrate that it retains prowess in new vehicle development having already seen its much-hyped Volt electric car described as unviable by the U.S. auto task force. A prototype of the PUMA - which stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility - will take to the streets of Manhattan this week during the New York auto show.

"Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them," said Larry Burns, GM's vice president of research, development, and strategic planning, in a statement.

The Segway Personal Transporter launched in 2002 failed to meet lofty sales goals and, despite a cult following in the technology sector, has languished as a novelty for tour groups, police forces and shopping mall security staff.
GM has adapted the original design, adding an enclosed cabin and more powerful motor delivering a top speed of 35 miles-per-hour in a bid to attract a more mainstream customer base. The Puma would run on lithium-ion batteries with a range of about 35 miles.

GM and Segway won't disclose the Puma's likely selling price, if launched commercially. However, he said the cost of acquiring and running a Puma would be one-third to one-quarter that of a traditional vehicle.

Segway Chief Executive Jim Norrod said the PUMA will target fast-growing urban centers in developing nations, where congestion and pollution are major concerns.

"There are cities the size of Chicago popping up in China, and they're saying 'We must resolve this issue of congestion,'" he said. Nerrod said the company pitched the idea of a car-like Segway to Burns and former GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner a year and a half ago.

Segway will provide the batteries and drive system, while GM will design the body and provide communications technology.

A Worthy Gift for Father's Day?

This is good news. Anything that reduces reliance away from imported oil is a very good thing. It does depend on a domestic source of electricity to become fully energy independent and nuclear would be my first choice. Here is how it works.

GM shifts workers to speed fuel-cell car production

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The most-recently unveiled version of the Chevy Volt concept car, a leading candidate for the next big thing in fuel-saving technology, took a step closer to reality when General Motors Corp. said Friday,Jun 15, 2007, it will move 500 engineers from the drawing boards out to where cars are actually being built.
The Detroit giant (GM :34.66, +1.06, +3.2% ) announced that more than 400 fuel-cell engineers will report to GM's powertrain group while another 100 will transfer to the global product development divisions to start integrating fuel cells into future vehicles.

At least 150 fuel-cell scientists and other employees will stay in GM's research and development center to continue work on hydrogen storage and fuel cells.
"Eight years ago we said that hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle technology could make a major contribution to solving the energy and environmental challenges facing the automobile industry," Larry Burns, head of research and development at GM, said in a statement.

"Today's announcement signals another important milestone as we move fuel cell vehicles closer to future production," he added.

At the big auto show in Detroit earlier this year, GM took the wraps off its Chevy Volt, an electric car capable of running 600 miles even after the battery runs out, thanks to an auxiliary engine that would kick in and recharge the battery. The power in that engine can come from several sources, including gasoline, ethanol, diesel and hydrogen.

GM lifted the curtains on the fuel-cell powered version of the Volt in Shanghai back in April, and Friday's announcement supports the company's vision that the vehicle will be sold to the public sooner rather than later.

"Fuel-cell power has been a chronically delayed technology, and GM is taking a leap of faith in hopes they can discover what's necessary to bring these cars to market," said Phil Reed, an analyst at car-buying research Web site Edmunds.com. "Reaching that goal is the kind of event that could change the momentum for GM as well as the American manufacturers."

Fuel-cell cars, which emit only water, use hydrogen to produce electricity to power the engine. GM's hydrogen Sequel has already proven capable of logging 300 miles on one charge, with officials having driven it that far across public streets in New York recently.

But GM still has to cut production costs before the Sequel is ready for the assembly lines. Other hurdles facing hydrogen-powered vehicles include the lack of a sufficient fueling station network and the need for improved storage capacity. GM is also looking to place 100 models of its fuel-cell Chevy Equinox within the next two years.

The industry's consensus target for putting such hydrogen vehicles on the road in substantial numbers seems to be more than decade out, although Burns and the rest of GM's engineers are focusing on moving up that timeline.

"GM is sticking its neck out here," Reed said. "It's surprising and encouraging."

Shawn Langlois is a reporter for MarketWatch, and the editor of its community message boards.