Posted on 02/07/2020 6:23:52 AM PST by karpov
General Motors, the auto maker that sells millions of cars and trucks each year, has a new production target: zero.
CEO Mary Barra hasn’t lost her mind. Instead, GM’s goal is a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion, the company said at an investor event following the release of its fourth-quarter earnings. It’s a bold vision to say the least.
Zero Emissions
No greenhouse gases coming from a tail pipe, of course, is all about vehicle electrification. GM, it seems, is leaving the traditional motor behind.
“We believe climate change is real, it’s a global concern and the best way to remove automotive ambitions from the environmental equation is an all-electric zero emissions future,” said Barra at the investor event. “The National Zero Emissions Vehicle Program that we have proposed across all 50 states will help accelerate the transition to EVs.....it would also position the United States as a leader in electrification.”
The GM plan calls for credits for zero-emission vehicles and incentives for battery development, among other things.
GM isn’t waiting for federal regulation, though. The company said in January that its Detroit-Hamtramck plant would be its first devoted to just making electric vehicles.
...
Zero Crashes
No accidents is all about active safety. That’s industry jargon for what the rest of America thinks of as self-driving cars.
The company’s Cruise division is the core of its autonomous driving. And on Wednesday, GM touted its growing engineering and software expertise when talking about gains its technology is making.
“The Cruise portion of the day was extremely compelling,” Levin Easterly Partners portfolio manager Christopher Susanin told Barron’s. “GM’s rate of improvement on their internal safety metrics have been [huge].”
GM says self-driving safety features can eventually save millions of lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
I don’t want one.
The market will decide. At least until the Democrats lie and fraud their way back into power.
“zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion ...”
and zero sales
and a zero stock price
No crashes = self-driving cars = a car that is controlled by a computer = the government deciding where you can go = When you can go = how far can go = who you can see. In other words, your freedom of movement is curtailed, your right to peacefully assemble is curtailed. You will be under the thumb of the giant totalitarian oligarchy.
Sorry GM. I already refuse to buy any vehicle produced by the UAW. Now I won’t buy from you even if break the union
“We believe climate change is real,”
Your customers don’t.
When electric cars can go 450 miles between charges, provide heat and air conditioning without reducing that range, and recharge in 5 minutes, I may consider one.
My first car was a Chevy and I stayed loyal to the brand until GM was rebranded Government Motors in the obama era.
Stopping production of current vehicles and switching to all electric will stop sales dead in their tracks. Ford, Chrysler and the imports will pick up their customers.
“Is this good for the company?”
That’s when they’ll really become “Government Motors”.
“We believe climate change is real,
...
Of course it’s real, and it’s always been real because it’s natural.
But it’s a terrible reason to make a major corporate change.
The market has decided. Have you been in a Tesla? GM must keep up or die.
Oh, and all this nonsense about Tesla being unprofitable: re-investing your sales into expansion does not make you “unprofitable.” Ask Amazon. This isn’t 1999, when companies without income expected somehow they’d figure how to monetize coolness. This is a company that makes the best $60,000 cars ever conceived for $30,000.
Spot on.
Not everyone lives in the city and has their hummus delivered by Uber eats.
I can’t remember the source...Playboy maybe?...but I read a story about a guy that owned an MGB. The story took place in the future and all old vehicles were forbidden. Only government approved “modern science” vehicles were allowed on the road. The guy kept his MGB hidden and only brought it out at night when there wasn’t much traffic. By the end of the story, the guy was being chased and rammed by the “approved” cars. He made it home safely, bruised and battered.
(Note...I read “The Dual” for the first time in Playboy. It was made it a movie starring Dennis Weaver.)
I like zero congestion....but somehow it never occurred to me as I sit in traffic, “why can’t GM do something about this?”
I mean, not even Elon Musk is that “visionary”....
When this fails they'll want another bailout.
So what the article is saying is, GM is a self-hating combustion-engine car company. Not an attractive look from a marketing perspective. How well would, say, Arby’s do with such a marketing campaign? Fortunately we don’t need to think about that because Arby’s is nothing like GM. Arby’s enthusiastically embraces its market/mission and is doing everything it can to please and satisfy its hungry, meat-eating customers.
Passed a Tesla on the way to work this morning.
I glanced at the driver as I passed, expecting to see a soy boy yuppie type at the wheel.
To my surprise, it was a very elderly lady who looked to be mid 80’s!. Yeah, she was driving slooooow...........................
CEO Mary Barra
You can bet when Obongo took control of GM he made sure “correct thinking” individuals were placed in top managent as a result you have a bunch brain washed fools running a car company. First they make the Volt which no one wants now we have them resolving to eliminate 90% of thier products ..idiots.
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