GM emerges from bankruptcy, but carmaker still off course with focus on gas engines

July 10, 11:39 AMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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General Motors Corp announced in Detroit today its rapid emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, pledging better customer care than before. Now 60 percent owned by the U.S. government after accepting $50 billion in federal bailout funds, the reborn GM has cast off tens of billions in debt along with unprofitable automotive brands, dealerships and plants.

General Motors Corp. Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr
(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

"This is an exciting day for General Motors," said GM CEO Fritz Henderson, "one that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers." He added, "We'll work hard to repay the trust, and the money, that so many have invested in GM."

AP reported new GM Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. saying at the press conference today that the 40-day bankruptcy had been extremely challenging. "There have been a lot of long hours. There have been a shuttering of plants. There have been painful layoffs."

GM has until 2015 to repay about $6.7 billion in government loans. Whether the U.S. Treasury's will ever recover the rest of the $50 billion given to GM hinges on the future market value og GM stock, which will not be trade publicly until 2010 or later. 

The new GM will keep its Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick brands along with most of its overseas operations. Shut down or sold off are the Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands. GM keeps 4,100 of its 6,000 U.S. dealers, but 14 U.S. plants will close and 20,000 of its 88,000 U.S. employees will be laid off by the end of the year.

Behind all the economic numbers and sweeping generalizations promising the new GN will be "faster and more responsive" to customers, I do not see anywhere in the press announcements today what I'd really hoped to see – a commitment to rapidly migrate away from the internal combustion engine.

From what I can tell, GM and the other surviving Detroit automakers intend to continue producing petroleum powered vehicles until the last last drop of fossil fuel is pumped out of the earth. Such short-sighted thinking is what forced the automakers into financial straits in the first place, and I do not yet see a core shift in their attitudes.

Oh, sure, we get plenty of lip service about plug-in electrics and hydrogen fuel cells, but the companies are not in earnest about creating these vital options, in my opinion.

If U.S. automakers truly had vision beyond the next quarterly financial report, they could show acceptance of the reality of global climate change by simply tweaking the hybrids they're already manufacturing to use more electricity than gasoline.

From the research I've done so far, the upgrade can be done fairly easily by resetting the parameters in the vehicle computer system at the factory. The compuer just needs to be instructed to make the electric motor the default power source, so the gasoline engine only kicks in when needed, such as to recharge low batteries while driving. My research says it would cost manufacturers less than $300 per vehicle to covert the hybrids to run 70 percent electric and 30 percent gasoline (or less).

Perhaps American consumers will not change their automotive buying habits without a return to $4 per gallon gasoline prices. I'd like to believe we don't need high gas prices to change our habits, but maybe not. I hope we are smart enough to see the deep pocketbook and environmental benefits from upgraded hybrids and a total conversion away from all fossil-fuel engines, but a massive public education campaign may be needed first. This article is a contribution to that effort.

However. since we citizen taxpayers are now stakeholders in General Motors, we have a right to insist that our government requires GM to rapidly migrate away from internal combustion engines and convert to producing pollution-free vehicles. Therefore, I urge you to contact your congressional representatives and propose that they order GM to convert now not later.

Related Examiner columns

• The Butterfly Effect: How the GM bankruptcy will impact us all
• New GM to exit bankruptcy leaner, meaner and 60 percent U.S. government owned

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