Mygreenwheels

For some years now, as I have been led to believe,GM has had a room set aside for Chapter 11, so its recent news should be no surprise for anyone. But it didn't need to be like this.

Ash Gupta spills the beans as guest blogger on Mygreenwheels...

In a piece for USA Today by Sharon Silke Carte, Rick Wagoner admits seven key errors that led to the death of GM. Number 3 was "Killing the EV1 electric program - Wagoner said his biggest mistake was killing the EV1, the company's pint-size electric car that was in test fleets in the late 1990s. It was a public relations debacle when the test cars had to be reclaimed and GM then scrapped them. But the real loss was scrapping the program behind them. GM abandoned a big lead in electric car technology and let Toyota take the green mantle for its hybrid Prius. Now, GM is scrambling to regain the lead, promising its plug-in electric Volt will be on sale at the end of next year. Al Benchich, a retired union president, says with the failure of the EV1, GM squandered the opportunity to keep the U.S. a dominant manufacturing force in a greener era. "We have the people and the skills to do these things, and there's no reason we can't be doing it," says Benchich, who watched membership in his local United Auto Workers shop shrink from 2,800 13 years ago to about 500 today. "We could've been building this kind of stuff for a while now, keeping plants open and keeping people working."

Ok, at last the denial is out. The Auto industry has had in its hands the ability to create cars that the market and consumer wanted, but its management has to bear the blame for missing that opportunity. By turning their back on the SUVs and gas guzzling Megaliths that typify American cars, the consumer market did something no Government would have the guts to do. They forced change.

Now the Car industry world wide will begin a renaissance, just as when the diesel electric engine took over from steam, the jet took over from the piston engine and the I-phone from the Bakelite 'dog & bone!'

The MiEV from MitsubishiLast week I made the keynote speech at the big All-Energy 2009 Conference at Aberdeen. I made the above points in a no-holds barred attack on the old auto sector, my alma mater. Just one megalith stands, Ford Motor Company, and they too have EV blood on their hands - the sale and subsequent hammer blows to Think in Norway which, if not sold and killed off by Ford, could have made them a global leader for the BEV sector. Even if Think survive, they have now missed the boat and Mitsubishi will eat their breakfast with the M-iEV which goes into production any day now, a brilliant left field entry that has wrong footed every car maker in the world including Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Honda and of course GM.

What to watch out for now are the JVs between VW and Toshiba and the quiet tie-up between Michelin who have the in-wheel drive technology for EVs and PHEVs and Valeo... this is where the ground breaking stuff will happen

So get ready now to see the changes that the old auto guys dared not make. You will catch all the reasons here as to why their industry's in its current feeble state.