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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Here's a novel idea: Give GM, Ford and Chrysler to Toyota, Honda and Nissan (not becessarily in that order). Let them keep the bits that can be fixed and may have some value, and close down the rest. That way at least some of these jobs are kept in the US, and the suppliers will still have customers to sell to, albeit not quite as much. Americans are going to still need to go places, like work for those that still have jobs, and they are going to keep buying cars, just less of them, and predominantly ones offering superior quality, value, and energy efficiency. Americans are not all the stupid sheep that Detroit executives have been catering to for decades. All car company's sales have dropped in the last few months, but the good imports have falled much less, a clear indication of consumers' preferences
Certainly, many of Detroit's old classics are beautiful and nostalgic. I do not however believe that anybody with discrimination would choose a Detroit rolling chassis over a fully functional Prius. I wouldn't, nor would I expect anybody to "buy American". Haven't we been sold that stuff before?
Detroit is not savable. It takes years to develop new products for the American market. Perhaps, the best plan would be to allow the companies to import European platforms quickly, with a progressive compliance plan that would allow them to make the cars match a different but not necessarily safer code. Retooling could be more quickly achieved.
Love that Lincoln! America is looking more like Cuba every day.
That fountain of mouth overflows today.
Detroit is worth saving, and there are many, many, Detroiters working very hard to make this city a little bit better every day.
Why don't you just suggest letting your own city die, and if you are in Detroit, just leave. Your energy will not be missed.
Livin' and lovin' Detroit, and not thinkin' about leavin'
Neil you always rock! Thank you!
Thank you, Neil, for strategically pondering the complex problems of the auto industry and proposing such thoughtful solutions. I hope that you are able to present these ideas to congress immediately, so that your proposals become the basis for any further "bailouts" that may be granted to the automotive industry!
p.s. Thanks also for speaking out about Iraq, President Bush, and the need for inspirational leadership in America. Much aloha to you and your family.
Another retooling could be their financial recapitalization, in the form of an ESOP, with the workers getting seats on the board, the execs that can't retool having the the same stock voting rights as the people doing the work. Then an extra incentive would be the gas tax, double or triple it on the high octane, reduce it on regular.
Right on Neil! it is painful and the old guard will struggle to keep what they have, but the world is moving on- a cultural shift is taking place.
Look around folks. Go tot the websites mentioned and check out what is happening. This current fiasco is a gigantic opportunity to strike while the iron is hot and make the big changes.
Yes, there will be adjustments and changes as new technologies and ideas come forth, but we aren't going anywhere until we make the BIG commitment. Once the commitment is made and support is there from the government in various ways, we will see the vaunted American igenuity at work.
Make more oil? OK, but lets not try to replace what we are now using. The goal is to move on to new technologies. Electricity, and hybrids are the way to go. This all ties togehter with the new grid and solar and wind power. Electric technology will be huge, with much crosspolination of ideas and manufacturing. Look at the big, integrated picture.
We may never have this chance to make this move again in our lifetimes. Oil is down right now and some people will want to back off and procrastinate. No way!
Now is the time.
Electric cars and hybrids are definitely a good way to go. I've been advocating hybrids since the 1970's when I first heard about them. But a hybrid still needs fuel and oil, (in the form of gasoline or diesel), has the most btu's per gallon. There are 3 reasons I advocate making oil: 1) It is compatable with our present fuel distribution system. 2) Manufactured oil is a bio-fuel and does not add to global warming. And 3) For national security reasons. If we make oil we can tell the Arabs to EAT THIER OIL!, which I've wanted to do since 1973. Two other things, making oil is a new technology and we would have to do it in this country. In other words we couldn't ship the jobs to China.
Let them fail. Work jointly with new startups to advance ourselves forward. The Big 3 have delayed, bought up and shelved patents in engine design that would have tripled effciencies nearly 20 years ago.
As a mechanical engineer I find it ulterly appauling that this government has the temerity to even think of bailing these stalwarts against technical advancements this country deserves to collapse.
It's going to take a lot of time to retrofit cars. Unfortunately, they have to be built from the ground up, to achieve the impressive mileage savings. Simply putting in any kind of efficient engine or battery into existing shells is poor engineering. First off, the cars of today are not aerodynamic at all. Second, why does it take 10,000lbs to move a 200lbs person? No no no. Convert the auto companies to making a national system of railways and high speed transport. It cannot be outsourced. It will provide plenty of jobs and it will be investing in the long term future of the US. Cars are just clogging up everything, even if they don't pollute. Think ahead people. Many upper income families are having 5 kids or more. This is a problem. We are going to hit a billion people in not too long, and maybe many will live to see 2 billion on US lands someday. There isn't a road fat enough or a parking lot large enough to handle that load. Use technology to virtually walk around a store, and to meet people for appointments. Stop wasting your life in a jam of traffic, or watching white lines go by.
Why do companies need bailouts? Didn't we give 700 billion to the banks to make funds available for just these kinds of situations? What are the banks doing with the loans? Maybe the banks don't think the companies are a good risk? If the banks don't think the companies are a good risk, why should the govt give them the money? If the banks do think they are a good risk, why don't they loan them the money?
Conclusion: The bailout was the single greatest act of monetary theft in the history of the world.
Yes it is. It is outright theft and was all along. The Democrats were fools to accept the premise and the boilerplate of the bill. Now we start to see how much has been wasted to pay off the thieves.
Every time I see the commericial for the giant truck, you know the one, with the macho cowboy sounding commentator telling how cool your gonna be because the giant gas guzzler you just bought that you only use to go to the store with can haul 10 tons, I want to get sick. These same companies are still pushing this garbage all the while looking for a government hand out provided by the tax payer. I say let the American car industry as is now die. A new industry using the innovations that Mr Young describes will rise out of the ashes.
The solution for our oil dependence problem is for the U.S. to make its own oil. The thermal conversion process can make oil out of organic and inorganic waste for about $80 a barrel. We could probably make about 8 to 10 million barrels a day from waste and sewage. Another way to make oil, (actually a high grade vegetable oil, better known as bio-diesel), is algae farming. It is possible with the right technology to produce 15 to 20 thousand gallons per acre per year. With this type of yeild only 7 million acres of the U.S.'s 2 billion acres would be needed to provide us with the 20 million barrels we use in a day. Both of these fuels are bio-fuels not fossil fuels so burning them does not increase green house gasses. It is true that the oil we could make would be more expensive, (at least at first), than oil pumped from the ground, but since 1973 we have let the market determine our energy policy. To continue to do so would be like using the market to determine our defense policy. It would be cheaper to arm our soldriers with shotguns rather than M-16's, and our pilots with Piper Cubs rather than F-16's but it is not an effective defense policy.
Niel, I couldn't agree more. I have a design for electric zeppelins. Please call me. I'm dead serious. Why drive when you could fly, and save the planet?
Thanks in advance.
Zepellins are without a doubt a big part of the future of freight transportation in this country. Plus they look so cool when they fly over.
Somone may correct me, but the energy situation we try to create on a freeway is: Kinetic Energy (car) = 1/2 mass x velocity squared. We will find ways of reducing the energy cost of attaining the acceleration to achieve that velocity, but weight reduction is simply imperative.
Hi, I'm no expert on this, but many who've been thinking about this issue for awhile (see Amory Lovins' "hypercar" discussions on his Rocky Mountain Institute website) have been advocating using much lighter materials for every possible part of vehicles to reduce that precise problem, and also trying to get industry types to make most of the vehicles easily recyclable.
I think Neil Young's very visible effort to convert an old-style road beast into a vehicle for the new millenium is a strong symbolic gesture, but obviously we would not want all sorts of new, heavy vehicles out on the road for the reason you mention.
Of course new cars will be lighter and more efficient, but as you say, Neil is making a really big statement by taking an old heap and converting it. it undercuts many arguments that it can't be done.
I'm with Neil! I think we ought to tax gas guzzlers at the DMV and reward gas stingy and alternate vehicles, say $200 extra for a Hummer and $200 rebate for the greenest, per year. They can afford it, and it would help offset the extra cost of new technology!!!!
Lot's of people who drive "gas gazzlers" do so out of necessity and not simply because "they" can afford it. Go punish someone else.
what necessity?
If its for your business, then its a business expense. Why should everyone else suffer because of the filth you spew into our atmosphere?
in my neck of the woods. i see lots of people who drive gas guzzlers NOT out necessity but do so because they can afford the gas. gas is a lot cheaper today--about $1.85. is there a trend for gas to go even lower to under a dollar? is the lower gas prices going to save the big 3? if the price of gas continue to fall will people stop caring about gas efficient cars?
We already do this - it's called a gasoline tax. If people burn more gas, they pay more. If they buy a hummer and just park it in the driveway, why should they pay more tax?
Who can afford it? who do you think pays for stuff like this, you do, either in taxes or in higher prices for products. Ignorance on display.
Let them die, let them die, although they may not be the only ones.
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