Last Bailout Plea: Chrysler Needs $7 Billion
So, finally we complete the trifecta. Chrysler says they need $7 billion in loans to stay afloat through 2009 and have pointed to the example of their ENVI design unit in leading the turnaround with the introduction of many new Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), City Electric Vehicles (CEV), Range-extended Electric Vehicles (ReEV), and full-function battery electric vehicles (BEV) by 2012.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
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Chrysler’s ENVI unit has been charged with developing fully electric vehicles based on current popular vehicle types and recently showcased a group of all electric cars including a sports car, a jeep and a minivan — all with impressive features.
The company’s product plans include the introduction of the first full function electric-drive model in 2010, and expansion to additional models by 2013. Chrysler also points out that they are already the largest producer of all-electric vehicles in the US through their GEM (Global Electric Motorcars) division.
GEM is a company that has been devoted to NEVs for the last 10 years. During that time Chrysler has produced over 40,000 NEVs and projects significant market growth in that segment over the next several years.
It’s now clear that of the Big Three, GM is the odd man out, with a weak plan and needing more bailout money ($18 Billion) than the other two combined (Ford $9 billion, Chrysler $7 billion).
Read Chrysler’s turnaround plan here
I still say any help that does not dissolve the UAW is a waste of taxpayer money and only delays the inevitable. I really think an example needs to be made of 1 of the big 3. I had previously said it should be Chrysler, but it sounds like they at least have a viable plan. Therefore GM should be allowed to die or seriously reorganize.
Trying to compete dollar for dollar with Asian products is foolish. Spending money to prop up North American manufacturing against the Asian hoards is spending good money after bad! Bush and his neo-cons exported our technologies, techniques and patents, “Lock, Stock and Barrel” to Asia for a few fast bucks! a self-regenerating army of little Asian women, locked in factory slavery are building GM Buick’s as we speak! They are also able to build good quality four door sedans that get 50 mpg! GM taught them all they know! The docks of Shanghai are bursting with shipments of these little cars, read to go to the U.S.A. They will be sold at WalMarts for $6000.00 a copy! North Americans simply cannot compete with labor from communist regimes! Grow up, choke it Down, and walk away crying, them’s the facts folks!
Wow irrational much there UncleB? First off you can thank Clinton for the creation of the Chinese juggernaut. He is the one that gave them favored trading status after they dumped millions into his campaign. So save your anti-Bush rhetoric for your other hippie friends and leave the discussions to the educated grownups. No one is trying to get the Big 3 to compete with China, besides they don’t sell cars here, they want the big 3 to compete with the Japanese and Korean plants in the US. Wow go watch some more Michael Moore fakeumentaries and leave the rest of us in peace.
I am upset about the idea of giving a bailout to the US automakers becuse it rewards them for what is clearly a lousy business model. If their complaint is that nobody in this economy has the money to buy a car, then instead of giving the money to the auto industry, why doesn’t the government just buy cars. More specifically, pay for any household with an income of $100,000 or less to trade in their old gas guzzler and replace it with an Hybrid made by one of the big three. Use a lottery to determine the order they get them in. It will keep the big three in business, the business of making cars, it will fix the environment by getting old gas guzzlers with high emissions off the street and instead of going to executive bonuses, luxury trips and the fuel for the corporate jet, it will put the money in the hands of the taxpayers.
Doug,
I think I disagree about making GM into the example. Chrysler may have a plan, but they have no product - and what product they do have (with the exception of the new Ram) is either garbage or antique garbage.
Chrysler’s ENVI dept. has a name (headed by the guy who drove the EV1 program … albeit straight into the ground, but still), and that’s all. They have a battery-pack Lotus, and no budget to add anything to the equation.
One of Rolls-Royce’s managers once wrote “everything we do to the car adds cost - we must ensure that it also adds value” (something like that - watched it on the History Channel). Chrysler, in this instance, is a clear case of this.
I agree that someone should be made an example of - and I think that “someone” should be Wagoner.
Uncle B,
if American trade laws put the same kind of taxes on Asian products that the Asians put on American imports, the trade deficit would disappear. As for Clinton and his commie-pinko politics creating the Chinese juggernaut … Doug has a point … but there was a Republican Congress there, too, and they should carry some of the blame, as well.
I still blame Clinton. ; )
Fascists blame the worker, realists blame the appalling bad management and the awful decisions made with the help of the neocon cabal in Washington over the past 28 years.
Help stamp out fascism…arrest the bush cabal and join a union.