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General Motors debuted a new logo meant to convey the automaker’s renewed commitment to the production and sale of electric vehicles. The company is also launching a new marketing campaign to underscore that commitment, as it seeks to compete with Tesla and other automakers that are rushing new EVs to market. It’s been about a decade since GM has last tweaked its logo, but this update represents the starkest change in the company’s 113-year history. The most obvious change is the use of a lowercase “gm” in the logo, after previously only using capital letters. The underline has been shortened...

Washington’s $49.5 billion bailout of General Motors saved at least 1.2 million jobs, protected hundreds of thousands of pensions and earned about $40 billion in tax collections, turning what some have dubbed a poor investment into a whopping bang for Uncle Sam, according to a new report. The bottom line, according to the Center for Automotive Research study heralded by GM: When the full picture of what was at stake is considered, including the potential for millions to be put out of work, the government actually made out big time. And when bailed-out Chrysler is included, the study found that...

Guess who was telling the truth? Here’s the transcript: ROMNEY: I just want to take one of those points, again, attacking me as not talking about an agenda for — for getting more trade and opening up more jobs in this country. But the president mentioned the auto industry and that somehow I would be in favor of jobs being elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m a son of Detroit. I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company. I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto...

From the “how’s that for irony” file comes a report that the judge that signed off on the GM bailout has been having second thoughts, because — surprise, surprise, surprise — he wasn’t informed about part of the deal. The Washington Free Beacon reports: As GM teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in June 2009, it cut a $367 million “lock-up agreement” with several major creditors in order to prevent its Canadian subsidiary from going under. The move spared the subsidiary from fulfilling the $1 billion debt it owed the creditors—major hedge funds—ensuring that GM would not have to face...

<p>General Motors sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line.</p> <p>Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.</p>

(Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. GM on Monday issued a statement disputing the estimates. Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher.

A bailed out General Motors expanded its small truck and SUV manufacturing in China soon after closing down similar facilities in Janesville, Wisconsin—the plant Barack Obama pledged to save and keep open for “another hundred years” in 2008. GM has increased its manufacturing capacity in China by 55 percent since emerging from bankruptcy thanks to a $50 billion bailout from taxpayers. An important piece of that increased capacity has taken place in Changchun, Jilin Province in China.

Spyker, the Dutch supercar firm and owner of Saab, hit General Motors with a $3 billion lawsuit Monday, claiming GM forced Saab into bankruptcy and interfered with a potential deal with Chinese investors that could have saved the company. Spyker is suing on behalf of Saab, assuming legal costs in exchange for a significant proportion of any potential award. Saab went into bankruptcy in December 2011. The lawsuit also says GM interference prevented an agreement with Chinese investor Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. Ltd., which would have allowed Saab to restructure. In court papers, Spyker said GM's motivation was to...

DETROIT -- General Motors says it plans to invest $833 million in Canada for research and development. The company says it began spending the money in 2009 and will invest at least $150 million per year through 2016. Much of the money will go to a research center in Oshawa, Ontario.

General Motors [GM 22.44 0.40 (+1.81%) ] has released an SEC filing disclosing a contract between the automaker and an ad agency that employs the wife of GM CFO Dan Ammann. The disclosure comes a month after GM filed its annual proxy statement listing potential conflicts of interest involving GM executives. In this case, Ammann says he was unaware of the contract with his wife’s ad agency until GM’s corporate governance team asked him about it just a few days ago. GM says the transaction has since been ratified under the automakers Related Party Transaction Policy. The contract in question...

General Motors told 1,300 employees at its Detroit-Hamtramck factory that they were being “temporarily laid off” for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt, the Detroit Free Press reports. “Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee. “We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand,” he told The Hill in a phone interview.

General Motors has staked much of its credibility on the Chevy Volt. GM has a goal of selling 10,000 of the vehicles in 2011 and is only about half way there with two months remaining. Ad spending seems to have ramped up faster than sales though with much of GM's marketing dollars going towards Volt commercials while only 1,108 of the vehicles sold in October. I can't remember ever seeing as many TV ads for a vehicle that has sold in such low numbers. Despite the low proportionate sales to hype ratio for the Volt, sites like Mother Nature...

In addition to being a representative from Pennsylvania, Republican Mike Kelly is also a Chevrolet dealer whose family has sold Chevys since 1953. But in recent hearings on government fuel economy ratings, he laid into his brand’s green halo car, the Chevy Volt with surprising zeal. Or, not-so-surprising, when you realize that he decided to run for congress in the wake of the bailout-era dealer cull. I’m a Chevrolet dealer… we have a Chevy Volt on the lot, it’s been there now for four weeks. We’ve had one person come in to look at it, just to see what it...

A new book chronicling the financial collapse of General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 reveals new details about just how desperate the situation was for the giants of the automobile industry. New York Times reporter Bill Vlasic's new book, "Once Upon A Car," relates the fiscal turmoil facing General Motors in the months leading up to the financial collapse.

Federal bailout funding may have prevented General Motors from going through a normal bankruptcy process, but it has come at a significant price in terms of reputation and potential buyers. Fifty percent (50%) of American adults are less likely to buy a GM car because of the bailout. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds just four percent (4%) are more likely to buy from the company that critics refer to as Government Motors. Forty-two percent (42%) say the bailout has had no impact on their buying plans one way or the other. The flip side of the data...

<p>Have you noticed that one of the Obama administration's most successful programs is also its most "socialist" initiative?</p> <p>OK, the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was not socialist in the classic sense: The government was not looking to hold on to the companies over the long run. Their turnaround was accomplished in significant part by tough, capitalist management steps.</p>

HONG KONG — General Motors said Tuesday that it would develop electric cars in China through a joint venture with a Chinese automaker, and would transfer battery and other electric car technology to the venture. G.M. said the China venture was not linked to its plans to begin importing its Chevrolet Volt electric hybrid to China this year. G.M., which is already the largest foreign maker of conventional vehicles in China, is keen to help define the emerging generation of green-energy automobiles here. And the state-controlled Chinese auto industry is just as eager for expertise from G.M., an acknowledged global...

Your Chicago Way read of the day comes from the Detroit News, where columnist Daniel Howes brings news that a few calls from the White House have led to Ford Motor Company yanking ads that spotlighted its refusal to take government auto bailout money. The ad is no longer on the company’s YouTube page. Nice car company ya got there, fellas. Would be a shame if anything happened to it… (h/t Is This Blog On, Cold Fury): For the only Detroit automaker that “didn’t take the money” of the federal auto bailouts, Ford Motor Co. keeps paying a price for...

Professional subsidy-sucking General Motors, which seems content to marinate in its taxpayer "investment" indefinitely, is getting ambitious. No, not in the sense of paying backthe $50 billion U.S. government bailout, or in producing vehicles people actually want to buy, but instead in finding other governments to subsidize its products. Not surprisingly the new partner - in a 50-50 joint venture with the state-run auto industry - is China. And also unsurprisingly, General Electric will join GM in a related partnership in the communist nation. And you probably already guessed the agreements surround the development and sales of electric vehicles....

..."yes, this was socialism".... That is all that is important here...the rest is just WaPo progressive nonsense....no need to stick needles in your eyes by reading the entire article *laughs*