GM Seeks Government Billions, Plans to Employ More Asian Workers

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner expressed no assurance that new components for its upcoming models would be made in the United States, according to The Washington Post.

Our companies are a day late and a dollar short when it comes to technological advancement. The United States used to be the bastion of higher technology, but it now finds itself consistently behind Japan, Korea, Europe and even China in many areas. The United States created the auto industry, but even something as fundamental as auto-manufacturing has been taken from us.

Wagoner’s remarks specifically outlined a plan to initially have hybrid batteries and other components produced by Asian firms which have superior technology to American competition. Wagoner later joined CEOs Alan Mulally of Ford Motor and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler on Capitol Hill, where they pushed Congress to back a proposed $25-50 billion loan meant to help the automakers realign with foreign competition.

The Chevrolet Volt – the vehicle in question – is not slated to come into production until 2010, seemingly long enough to incorporate full-scale American production of whatever components might be necessary. GM is branding this as the car of the future and the solution to America’s oil woes; yet it would prefer its engineering marvel to be pieced together from foreign parts.

Automakers have enormous research and development teams and they have made phenomenal advances in engine technology over the last twenty years. Unfortunately, these advances have come almost completely in horsepower rather than fuel-economy (government fuel economy standards from the 1980s will not be raised until 2015).

GM, Ford and Chrysler are building incredibly complex hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles because both they have tax-incentives to produce them, and consumers have tax-incentives to purchase them. In spite of this, our best vehicles still cannot match foreign competition.

A portion of the $25-50 billion being demanded by U.S. automakers will be sent overseas instead of invested into domestic research and development. Meanwhile, as U.S. companies continue to tread water, foreign competition will continue to absorb more of our domestic market. Honda and Toyota placed an emphasis on fuel economy twenty years ago, and they fully expect their own models to compete with the plug-in hybrids Chevrolet Volt, Ford Escape, etc.

Our Congress should demand decisive action and confirmed results from this bailout money. The Big Three should be forced to make the necessary advancements to stay competitive, instead of being coddled with billions in taxpayer money every time they face a hurdle too difficult to manage – but one which has usually been scaled by foreign competition.

Source The Washington Post:

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