Chevy Volt hits assembly line with Obama Administration pledge to buy first 100

Putting your money where Detroit's mouth is.

Wednesday proved a day of firsts for the Chevy Volt: General Motors assembled the first Volt at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant, and the Obama administration pledged to buy the first 100.

(snip)

The news comes one day after rival Nissan announced its own upcoming electric, the Leaf, will cost around $25,000 after a federal tax credit. GM CEO Ed Whitacre in January suggested the Volt will sell for a profit "in the low 30s."

But regardless of the price tag, it appears General Motors' largest investor will help the company move product: The Detroit Free Press reports the Obama administration has pledged to "purchase the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll of American assembly lines" this year. That means the Volt.

The administration also announced it will purchase more than 5,000 hybrid vehicles to replace aging units in its own fleet.

Video- President Obama and Shanghai's Yu Talk GM

VIDEO: GM Bans Michael Moore From Detroit Premiere Of His Own Movie

By GottaLaff

They're awfully thin skinned for a Big Bad Powerful Entity, arent' they? Failure does that to a corporation:

Michael Moore, in interview with WDIV, discusses how GM is still heartbroken over 'Roger & Me' 20 years later — refusing to let him meet with press at the rented theaters at GM's Renaissance Building for the Detroit premiere of 'Capitalism: A Love Story."

GM should be grateful for all the free press it's getting these days. Oh, but I kid the Auto Giant:

Moore ran into problems when it turned out one of the theaters he rented for the screenings was owned by General Motors (GM) — which Moore famously skewered for its anti-worker policies in his 1989 film Roger & Me. [...]

GM agreed to run the movie only if both Moore and the local press were locked out. [...]

In addition to the over 1,000 theater opening Oct. 2, Moore plans to screen the film for free on Oct. 1 in the some of the poorest parts of the country.

As Moore asks in the video, "What country are we living in?"

Cheney admits it: Bush bolstered GM so it would fail on Obama's watch, not his

By GottaLaff

Typically BushCo-ian:

During an interview on Fox News last Tuesday, Cheney revealed that during his presidency George W. Bush did not want to be the one who “pulled the plug” on GM.

Why not? They pulled the plug on everything else. The U.S. was circling the drain under their watch.

“I thought that, eventually, the right outcome was going to be bankruptcy,” Cheney said, referring to GM. “It had to go through such a dramatic restructuring to have any chance of survival that they had to be able to renegotiate labor contracts and so forth, and the president decided that he did not want to be the one who pulled the plug just before he left office.”

But by all means, Rushpublics, blame Obama. True to their usual M.O.

Cheney said that rather than acting on GM, the Bush administration “put together a package that tided GM over until the new administration had a chance to look at it.” This included the original $17.4 billion auto industry bailout package signed in by the Bush administration late last year, which was designed to give the incoming Obama administration some time to adjust and make preparations for the inevitable GM bankruptcy.

Aww, how thoughtful of them.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Discussing GM bankruptcy, Scarborough compares Obama to Kim Jong-il

Joe is a very, very strange man today.

Video- President Obama's speech on GM bankruptcy

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Car Companies Standardize Plug for Electric Vehicles

By GottaLaff

::Hopping from one foot to the other, clapping madly with glee::

Just a few hours after General Motors called for a standardized EV plug, one has been created!

Caroline Reichert, a spokeswoman for the Germany energy company RWE, said leading automotive and energy companies have reached and agreement for a standardized plug for electric cars. Some of the automakers include in that agreement are Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Fiat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.

The three-point, 400-volt plug, which will allow electric cars to be recharged anywhere in a matter of minutes, will be unveiled Monday at the world’s biggest industrial technology fair in Hanover, northern Germany.

One giant step for electric cars, one small step for mankind.

Chart: GM's performance under Rick Wagoner

By GottaLaff

Click to enlarge:

(via)

G.M. chief stepping down

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Politico: The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of GM, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said. Here you go:

GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest
The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler.

ORIGINAL POST:

I just got this Tweet from the New York Times:

NYT NEWS ALERT: Rick Wagoner, G.M. Chief, Is Said to Be Stepping Down

UPDATE:

A person with knowledge of General Motors' plans says Rick Wagoner will step down immediately as chairman and chief executive of the struggling Detroit automaker. [...]

The move comes on the eve of President Obama unveiling his plan to reinvigorate the U.S. auto industry. Obama and other administration officials have said they would demand deeper restructuring from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC before they would get any more government loans.

GOP uses tanking GM slogan

How ironic that a bankrupt political party would use a bankrupt company's slogan. And isn't that poll about a week old?

The House Republican Study Committee sends out periodic dispatches highlighting the gap between Democratic rhetoric and public opinion. Today's version touts a Rasmussen survey that finds 58 percent of Americans think the stimulus will "hurt" or have "no impact" on the recession.

They call these missives "Heartbeat of America."

Sound familiar? GM's Chevy brand used the very same slogan in their ads in the early 1990s.

A particularly ugly Bush stain: BushCo to bar autoworkers from striking against GM

By GottaLaff

When Thom Hartmann rants, I listen. Right now, he's ranting... loudly. He's quoting from this Raw Story piece, and when you're done reading, feel free to rant with Thom and me in Comments. The gist: GM says give us the loan money, but make it illegal to strike. A strike would give the government permission to rescind their loan and allow GM to declare bankruptcy:

A little-noticed provision buried in the Bush Administration's $13.4 billion loan package to General Motors will prohibit the United Auto Workers from launching a strike as long as the company receives funds from the federal government.

Not only that, but a strike would give the federal government the power to call in their loan -- putting the loan in default and forcing GM into bankruptcy. The government now has the power to force a bankruptcy if “any labor union or collective bargaining unit shall engage in a strike or other work stoppage.”

Why would he do this? Here's one reason: Break the unions, break the Democratic party.

The terms of GM's loan package were reported last night in the Detroit Free Press. They did not become public until GM filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

So the big fat corporate rich guys get their bonuses, but the workers get... screwed.
The US auto workers union is also saddled by another requirement of the loan: the UAW must now accept a plan to lower wages and benefits for GM to match those of other foreign-owned US automakers' plants.

Feel that rant coming on yet?

Auto plants shutting down

By GottaLaff

All 30 Chrysler plants will close for one month, per CNN. Ford is adding a week to its normal 2-week holiday shutdown schedule. 46,000 Chrysler workers will be affected.

The CNN money guy is saying this could trigger bankruptcy.

Chrysler union workers will be paid, but not full salary.

Chrysler announced Wednesday it is closing all its North American manufacturing plants for at least a month, the starkest move taken by U.S. automakers as they anxiously await word about government loans.

[...] Chrysler and General Motors fear they might not have enough money to pay their bills in a matter of weeks.

Attempting to cut costs, GM was halting construction of a plant tied to one of its most important projects, the Volt. Ford also said it will shut down 10 plants for an extra week in January because of sluggish sales.

Chrysler said it would extend the normal two-week holiday shutdown that begins Friday to at least Jan. 19 at all 30 of its factories due to slumping sales.

It's been more than a month since the White House started "looking at" what they could, or would, do.

Sluggish auto sales worldwide are taking a toll on foreign automakers as well. Honda Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it would halt expansion in Japan, Turkey and India and cut 450 temporary workers in Japan through February.

Nissan Motor Co. said it would reduce Japanese production by 78,000 vehicles and also cut 500 temporary workers there.

Not Bankers

Nope, and it's not just the US losing jobs.

TORONTO — General Motors of Canada Ltd. is laying off 700 more workers at its Oshawa, Ont., operations, the Canadian Auto Workers union said Friday.

The layoffs at the car plant will take place in February.

The auto maker also told the union that it is delaying plans to assemble new transmissions in St. Catharines, Ont., CAW chief Ken Lewenza said.

Ford CEO To Road Trip In Hybrid To Congress

What a crock.

Ford's CEO Alan Mulally plans to ride in a Ford hybrid all the way to Washington to make the point that he's a true penitent. The others apparently intend to fly commercial for their appearances before congressional committees later this week.