How To Save A Major Automobile Company
Find a new ownership group. The culture must change. It is time to turn the page. In the high technology sector there are several candidates for ownership of a major car and truck manufacturer. We need forward looking people who are not restricted by the existing culture in Detroit. We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming.
It is time to change and our problems can facilitate our solutions. We can no longer afford to continue down Detroit's old road. The people have spoken. They do not want gas guzzlers (although they still like big cars and trucks). It is possible to build large long-range vehicles that are very efficient. People will buy those vehicles because they represent real change and a solution that we can live with.
The government must take advantage of the powerful position that exists today. The Big 3 are looking for a bailout. They should only get it if they agree to stop building autos that contribute to global warming now. The stress on the auto manufacturers today is gigantic. In order to keep people working in their jobs and keep factories open, this plan is suggested:
The big three must reduce models to basics. a truck, an SUV, a large family sedan, an economy sedan, and a sports car. Use existing tooling.
Keep building these models to keep the workforce employed but build them without engines and transmissions. These new vehicles, called Transition Rollers, are ready for a re-power. No new tooling is required at this stage. The adapters are part of the kits described next.
At the same time as the new Transition Rollers are being built, keeping the work force working, utilize existing technology now, create re-power kits to retrofit the Transition Rollers to SCEVs (self charging electric vehicles) for long range capability up to and over 100mpg. If you don't think this technology is realistic or available, check out the Progressive Insurance Automotive X prize. Alternatively, check out Lincvolt.com or other examples.
A bailed out Auto manufacturer must open or re-purpose one or more factories and dedicate them to do the re-power/retrofit assembly. These factories would focus on re-powering the Transition Rollers into SCEVs but could also retrofit and re-power many existing vehicles to SCEVs. These existing vehicles are currently sitting unsold at dealerships across America.
Auto manufacturers taking advantage of a government bailout must only sell clean and green vehicles that do not contribute to global warming. No more internal combustion engines that run exclusively on fossil fuels can be sold period.
No Big Three excuses like "new tooling takes time". New tooling is not a requirement for SCEV transition rollers.
Build only new vehicles that attain the goal of reversing global warming and enhancing National Security.
Government legislation going with the bailout should include tax breaks for purchasers of these cars with the new green SCEV technology. The legislation accompanying the bailout of major auto manufacturers must include directives to build only vehicles that attain the goal of reversing global warming while enhancing National security, and provide the financial assistance to make manufacturing these cars affordable in the short term while the industry re-stabilizes.
Eventually the SCEV technology could be built into every new car and truck as it is being assembled and the stop gap plan described above would have completed its job of keeping America building and working through this turbulent time.
Detroit has had a long time to adapt to the new world and now the failure of Detroit's actions is costing us all. We pay the bailout. Let's make a good deal for the future of America and the Planet. Companies like UQM (Colorado) and others build great electric motors right here in the USA. Use these domestic electric motors. Put these people to work now. This plan reverses the flow from negative to positive because people need and will buy clean and green cars to be part of World Change. Unique wheel covers will identify these cars on the road so that others can see the great example a new car owner is making. People want America to win!
This plan addresses the issue of Global warming from our automobiles while enhancing our National Security and keeping Detroit working.
Neil Young, activist (Bridge School, Farm Aid) rock legend, has assembled a team that is in the process of transforming his gargantuan 1959 Lincoln Continental from a gas guzzler into a showcase for green technology and sustainability. The car will be entered into the Automotive X Prize that offers a $10 million prize to develop a vehicle that can get 100 miles per gallon or better. The almost 50 year old Lincoln, one of the biggest, heaviest production cars of all time, has been re-named "Linc Volt" and is the subject of a feature documentary called "Repowering The American Dream" that is now in production under the aegis of Young's Shakey Pictures.
Here is a link to last month's New York Times story on the Linc Volt. Here are some photos of the car.
Read More:
Should the Government Bail Out the Big U.S. Three Automakers? HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In
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I am tired of hearing 3 million people will be out of jobs if we don't bail out the auto industry. I would rather our tax dollars go to pay the salaries of these 3 million people for a few years than have the money help out the greedy billionaires who will profit from such a bailout.
Neil young rules, obama should appoint him head of something....
We have been fighting wars on two fronts for 6 years now. A Lot of equipment needs to be repaired or replaced ( trucks, hummers, tanks) Give these contracts to the big three now keeps people working and allows them to retool. Chrysler used to make tanks in Newark Delaware before the switched that plant to trucks and cars. this way it would be and investment instead of a hand out.
Yes, bailout these companies, in exchange for majority votes on their boards by a purchase of majority stock in the company at its bargain basement value. The new board members should be appointed by government.
Face it, we have to trust somebody with control of these companies, and elected officials are more accountable than secretive oligarchs who aren't especially bright and use their money to buy legislators to rake in more money. The new board would not "force" but lead the companies to fully embrace green technology and other good things, and would reduce executive pay to somewhere in the civil servant range, hire people who understand these industries in the context of national values and global realities, while supporting employee training, unemployment benefits, health care, etc. And the new board could encourage competition and innovation by other companies because that's the American way, rather than kill the electric car, for example.
It wouldn't be the Chinese model, but would draw from any good example and mix in good ole American ingenuity. The "marketplace" is not a worthy deity once wealth and power feed on themselves and dominate the checks and balances that allow democracy to work.
This transition had better be real and not just another bandaid for a derelict system. FDR tried that, and every other "triangulating" Democrat has tried that. Either it leads to global exploitation and corruption, war, mass poverty and homelessness or outright economic collapse. I hope we're better than that.
The "real economy" in this country is not about Wall Street or the banks. It's all about "jobs"! Every day, corporations across America are announcing layoffs of thousands of employees. Layoffs by corporations should be the very last resort---not the first reaction to hard times. Don't corporations realize that every "employee" laid off is one less "customer" for their products or services?
The government should bail out the auto industry because they are in such trouble, but with the following strings attached: 1. Employees get a chance to vote to keep their jobs but must agree to take say a 30% temporary pay cut, 2. With the money saved, the auto companies must then slash prices on their current backlog of mid-priced cars to a range of $6,000 to $10,000. Cars would fly out of the show rooms. Employees keep their jobs. (A deep pay-cut would be very painful but it is better than unemployment and no future).
The auto companies get some "breathing space" to re-tool and offer a high quality car at a price people can afford. A dependable "$8,000 car" would be a worthy goal until plug-in electrics are perfected.
Also, future tax cuts for "any" corporations should be tied to their efforts to "hold" or "increase" their number of employees.
And one more thing, no government contracts should be given to any corporations who move their headquarters off shore to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in support our country!
Neil Young just can't GET any cooler.
Just a different way of looking at things. Just think, this was conceived and managed in someone's garage two years ago. YES WE CAN!
http://ssiracing.com/
Cool link. Exciting stuff. Yes we can, and yes we WILL!
Totally wrong. Giving government money to corporations and using politics to shape their decisions is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Let them die. Other companies will rise up. Should the government bail out Circuit City? Should the government have bailed out Montgomary Wards? Companies grow and companies die. It's the nature of it. Government getting in the way is not the answer.
Not this time. Millions of jobs at stack, millions more related jobs at stake. If the government does not work this, they will have to work all those people being unemployed as well as that impact on the economy. Sorry it's gotten to this point. Obviously the trickle-down era did not get rid of government ... just common sense government.
This is a perfect time to use existing manufacturing sites and employees to launch into manufacturing green technologies such as wind turbines. If not bail out, how about a temporary buy out with all the execs getting canned and taxpayers get to buy preferred stock in the new company?
The most important thing is keeping people working and producing new and innovative products; not the dinosaurs the the Big 3 (and Big Oil) forced down our stupid throats for too many years.
GM built and marketed a successful plug-in electric more than a decade ago. The people that were able to lease them in California loved them. GM did this in response to a new California air quality law that required that manufacturers selling cars in California sell at least 10% that produced no emissions. That's right - ZERO emissions. Most other manufacturers were selling electric vehicles as well, but GM's entry was the most advanced. Of course, the auto industry was fighting this all the way. Ultimately the federal government joined the auto industry lawsuit against California and they won. GM immediately rounded up all the leased vehicles, crushed them, and then decided to shoot themselves in the head by building Hummers. Check out the film "Who Killed The Electric Car?"
Bravo! Great post, Mr. Young.
I was heartbroken after watching, "Who Killed the Electric Car.” There are plenty of forward-thinking, innovative professionals out there in the private sector that would love to have the money and support that has been given to the "Big Three" over the past several years. These companies have been on "cruise control" for years, unwilling to break their allegiance to the oil companies. Enough is enough!
Me, too, that film enraged me big-time.
Ditto that. I kept thinking, "Why is this happening?" Even though I know why, at the same time, I don't know why because it never changes. America needs to retool, period. Given a choice such as what Mr. Young recommends would send scores of people to buy vehicles. At first GM said it was going to produce such a vehicle by 2010; then, that pronouncement flew away. Guess I'll stash my money away until a viable alternative becomes available.
Thomas Friedman wrote in a recent column that appointing Steve Jobs as the new CEO of GM would be a good way to jump-start the automotive industry. Considering how Steve Jobs is dealing with some health issues, and the challenges of Apple, I'm not sure if he's the best candidate for such a job.
I do think putting Neil Young on the board of the directors for a government-bailed-out GM would be a novel idea. Neil has some pretty good ideas, and I thought they should be given some serious consideration.
Neil has done some good things for his adopted home. He's worked with Willie Nelson to co-found FARM AID, which has done some great things for the American farmers. He's also invested in Lionel Trains, an American toy manufacturer, which could have easily gone bankrupt without his support.
Thank you, Neil! We need this type of thinking, and I applaud your commitment to creating some solutions.
Hopefully Team Obama is listening.....
Hey, we should get Michael Moore in there too! Wouldn't that serve the greedy bastards right?
One question: Isn't Neil Young a Canadian? He might have good ideas, but it probably isn't appropriate to put him in our government.
I love all the POMPOUS audacious insults and criticizms of Detroit.
Up to 3 yrs ago, their best selling and most profitable vehicles being sold on the North American Continent were Gas Guzzling SUVs and Trucks and Minivans. All 3 classes dragging down the fleet MPG average.
That means- The General Public that can actually afford vehicles hadn't decided Gas was high enough yet to stop buying those.
Who's fault is it that the big 3 were making big bucks from selling the public what they kept asking for?
Both the Big 3's Execs & the Consumer public able to afford a new vehicle costing average $27k, 17mpg, & higher cost insurance / maintenance. That would be the majority of people making over $60k.
The Big 3 began retooling & redesigning vehicles last year. They made huge changes in product offerings already.
The reason no one is buying any vehicles at all, including japanese ones, is because Auto Loans right now are in short supply. And millions have lost their jobs.
Whos fault is that?
Not the UAW's. In fact, the fault lies with the Financial firms and their Billion dollar execs that have already been given Bailouts of OUR tax money and then went on company(taxpayer) funded vacations.
They are the ones that cause the mortgage fraud meltdown. Ask any economic expert. There are over 400 Separate FBI investigations currently underway in regard to mortgage fraud committed over the last 10 yrs.
Dude-- It's like working in a restaurant. If you're running low on the fish you have the waiters push the chicken.
You don't keep pushing something just cause it sells if you can't sustain it.
Much as I love Neil Young - and revile some of the commenters here who clearly hate him - he's no automotive engineer, nomatter what me may have done with the old Lincoln.
My argument would be that the retooling changes that are needed are not major - new pressings, for example. I happen to know that Karmann - the people who made the Karmann Ghia, the Porsche 914, the Scirocco, the Rabbit Cabriolet, and countless other cars you know - the first of the modern Jaguars, etc. - makes _world_class_ presswork tooling and they are hurting deserately right at this very moment. They'd JUMP to make new tooling for The Big 3! In fact, I'll bet a lot of money they already make _some_ of the tooling used at each of The Big Three today.
The new tooling that _is_ required can be done quickly...
.
People, don't be fooled-- Neil Young is a CANADIAN! They have long sought to undermine our energy and mobility sources in an attempt for us to adopt their native vehicles and fuels-- floating logs, Mountie horses, and a fuel made from maple syrup.
I've also heard he's palled around with kidnappers! He launched his musical career in Rick James' living room (this is actually true! Hard to imagine, but they both played together as teenagers)!
But yeah-- I agree with a guy below, that working on engine conversion kits would put mechanics to work across the country. If you could turn your existing SUV into a hybrid or battery operated car for an extra $5k or something I think that would do a lot of good. And thank you for caring, Neil. This is why you're one of the greats and haven't lost a moment of relevancy.
floating logs....lmao. talk about really going green, or is it? a tree had to die somewhere.
Detroit does produce too many basic models and often changes them radically from year to year - they still seem to be stuck in the 50s where they rolled out new models every 1/2 year and they loaded them with fragile bumpers that would be expensive to repair after minor collisions - they were trying to get consumers to buy a new car as soon as possible.
Japanese auto makers concentrate on fewer basic models. I drive a Matrix which has the identical frame and engine as the Corolla, and it didn't change much in the first few years after its introduction - I would have bought a Prius but I am too tall for one - I'd buy a new Matrix if they introduced one with a hybrid with built in charger.
You Rock Neil! The time has come and the time is now!
I would love to return to my old classic autos, make them electric, and then hook them up to my solar powered home! What isn't energy efficient about this solution?
People need to stop focusing on the old oil company propoganda, you know, the Texas GOP good ol' boys that lobbied against energy efficient innovation, sleeping with the car manufacturers, the ones that stopped these solutions from being implemented decades ago!
If you haven't watched, "Who Killed the Electric Car", do it before you consider yourself informed!
The dream of electric cars powered by home powered solar cells must become a reality someday soon!
Hallelujah for high gas prices. We need to insist on and support these awesome innovations because we don't have time to debate these details for another precious planetary minute!
RE-TOOL, BABY, RE-TOOL
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