Posted on 03/22/2019 6:04:27 PM PDT by Libloather
(Reuters) - General Motors Co confirmed on Friday it will invest $300 million in a suburban Detroit assembly plant, adding 400 jobs to build a new Chevrolet electric vehicle.
The largest U.S. automaker has come under heavy criticism from President Donald Trump in recent days over its decision to end production at its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant earlier this month.
GM officials said the announcement was planned well before Trump's series of angry GM tweets that started on Saturday. Trump called GM CEO Mary Barra on Sunday to urge her to reverse the decision to end production at the Ohio plant, which is in a crucial state for the 2020 presidential election. He again ripped the company in a speech in Ohio on Wednesday.
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WOW!!!!!!!!!
I wonder what I should do with my Challenger?
It’s either hold it for good or get rid of soon because gas cars may not be worth much in another decade!!
The last four muscle cars GM made reviewed well - and were total flops in the marketplace. There are still examples of the last one, the Chevy SS, on dealership floors still unsold years after it was discontinued (2017).
I think the technology is growing, and I find the prospects to be pretty amazing. If some of this pans out, we’re going to have a pretty amazing future.
I’m not knocking the old internal combustion cars. Some of them are classics, and I’d want some of them around to remind us of the past.
There has been a tendency to poo-poo the electric vehicle industry. I think we’re reaching a point where that is going to change in short order.
I’m looking at some of the electric motorcycles, and some of them are incredible.
One will take you about 200 miles, and recharge about 80% in one hour. They’ve still got a ways to go, but we’re about one iteration away from a very sound machine, and there are a number of players entering the market.
That 0-60 time for that pickup matches up with some incredible sports car times, and it’s a big vehicle.
This isn’t about profit, it’s about appeasing both sides of the political aisle. Politically, it’s brilliant. Economically, it’s idiocy.
Other than for a few foolish liberal urbanites, the EV market is totally driven by US government CO2 emission standards. Trump has given a slight reprieve (if you can call 35 mpg corporate average for pickup trucks a reprieve), but the next Democrat or RINO Republican president could easily reverse that. It would be foolish for GM to not have an EV (coal powered, but declared by the US government to be "Zero Emission") on the books for quick averaging into the CO2 emission requirements.
Another electric vehicle is just more poor decision making in a long string of poor decision making by GM. The Chinese manufacturers will eat their lunch. GM decision making sucks, their quality sucks, and their cars suck.
“Economically, its idiocy.”
I want to see US automakers be smart, make good decisions, and succeed.
This looks like another bad decision.
“The last four muscle cars GM made reviewed well - and were total flops in the marketplace.”
I can’t think how many times I’ve seen a new car design and thought, “Now, why the hell can’t Detroit do that?”
Because when Detroit (and especially GM) does it, they always add major fail to the equation. They never actually engineer the car completely properly. They may fix the problems or finish the job a few years later, but then the car is immediately cancelled due to lack of sales.
In case you were wondering which cars I was referring to:
1. Chevrolet Caprice PPV
2. Chevrolet SS
3. Pontiac G8 GT
4. Pontiac GTO (04-06)
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