America needs Big Three to succeed developing next generation of vehicles

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…Not only would the immediate economic ripple of a GM, Ford or Chrysler failure be of tsunami-like proportions, but the inevitably stalled or lost progress on alternatives to the internal combustion engine would be catastrophic. Understand that the new propulsion technology in which the auto industry is playing a lead role is not just about selling cars that use a lot less gas, but also about the future power of military equipment and the platform from which the United States deals with other nations, some of which sell us a lot of oil but really don’t like us very much.


A President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton can come to diplomacy a little differently if they don’t have to worry about some wacko regime cutting off our oil supply. And Obama’s ambitious “green jobs” program sure takes off quicker if the batteries needed for thousands of new-generation vehicles are being made in the U.S.A., not unloaded at our ports.

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, says the U.S. automakers are within 10 years of mass application of “the two really big inventions that I believe will fundamentally change the industry for the better” — lithium batteries and cellulosic biofuels (a.k.a. gasoline you can grow).

If a bankruptcy intervenes? “Everything slows down dramatically,” Cole said. At least here, but not in other countries that are already eating too much of our automotive lunch.

Detroit Free Press