General Motors has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy to claim the company is poised for growth, hoping eventually to buy back the 60 percent equity stake now held by the U.S. Government. However. since we citizen taxpayers are now stakeholders, we need to insist that GM rapidly migrate away from internal combustion engines and convert to producing pollution-free vehicles. (Read the rest of this article...)
General Motors Corp announced in Detroit today its 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.
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, in my opinion.
If U.S. automakers truly had vision beyond the next quarterly financial report, they would 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 computer just needs to be instructed to make the electric motor the default power source with the gasoline engine only kicking in when needed, such as to recharge low batteries while driving. My research says it would cost manufacturers roughly $100 per vehicle to covert the hybrids to run 70 percent electric and 30 percent gasoline (or less)
Read the rest of this article...