from CNNMoney.com:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed a deal to sell its Hummer truck unit, just one day after filing for bankruptcy.
But GM (GMGMQ) would not identify the buyer nor name a price, saying only that the deal would close by the end of September.
GM had revealed in April that it was courting three serious offers for the Hummer brand. The automaker would not confirm Reuters’ report that offers ranged from $100 million to $200 million.
Read more HERE
GM makes its case with the Volt. Check out WatchMojo’s look a the Volt, and then read more about the new electric car from gm-volt.com:
Close observation of recent developments in the automotive sector leads to a certain conclusion; financial collapse is necessary to bring about needed change.
We are bearing witness to a catastrophic rupture of the car industry as we know it. Not only in terms of the economic machinery upon which it is run, but more so upon the fuel its creations will use. The near death of the auto industry is bringing with it the slow death of the combustion engine.
When GM first introduced the Chevrolet Volt electric car concept, car sales were brisk, oil prices reasonable and the economy appeared healthy. Now that the car is nearing mass production and that most other automakers have subsequently unveiled electric car programs of their own, the economy, the industry, and the company is steeped in disaster.
I do not propose it is the case that the birth of the electric car caused this chaos, but rather it is this chaos that will allow the electric car industry to rise.
Whenever in the history of humankind and industrial progress a new transformational technology has arisen, its ascent has brought with it the demise of that which was before it.
Simple examples are how the typewriter was eradicated by the PC, the Polaroid by the digital camera, or how the horse and cart were replaced by the car. These destructive transformational events take place on many levels, such as the collapse of societies or ecosystems, the extinction of dinosaurs, or even as the big bang gave rise to the universe.
Fundamental market forces of their own right would not have led to a rapid production and adoption of electric cars. Rather, the status quo would have persisted, car companies would have continued to make profitable gas guzzling trucks and people would have kept buy them on credit. Indeed when GM introduced the Volt is was more public relations than an engineering. They didn’t decide to bring it to production until they saw the intense public response. Now it is their last hope.
The collapse of the economy combined with the current administration’s interest in energy independence, alternative energy and electric vehicles will make the rapid rise of the electric car possible.
People have not been buying new cars out of fear of their future economic status, lack of available credit, and a general dearth of financial confidence. They are driving their old cars and are doing so for as long as they can.
The government has chosen to support and recreate the auto industry as one that will grow the already inadvertently kindled electric car enterprise.
And then when the bottom has finally come and gone, and the lean restructured auto companies are mass producing electric cars including the Chevy Volt, the tide will change.
Confidence having begun to rise, and old cars having begun to fail, the people will come. And then our dream will arrive. A country and a world less dependent on oil. The rise of the electric car.
US carmaker General Motors is joining with scooter maker Segway to make a new type of two-seat electric vehicle.
The prototype, which will be debuted in New York, is aimed at urban driving. GM aims to start making them by 2012.
The vehicle, named Puma, has a top speed of 35mph and can go as far as 35 miles on a single charge. It will use lithium-ion batteries.
GM, having been bailed out by the US government, is looking to smaller vehicles to secure its future.
Puma stands for personal urban mobility and accessibility.
Wow, could this actually happen?
Bankruptcy may be even closer for General Motors and Chrysler, now that the Obama administration’s auto task force has determined that both may have trouble surviving as viable standalone companies.
The task force spent a month analyzing the two automakers, concluding that “both (GM and Chrysler) have unsustainable liabilities and both need a fresh start. Their best chance at success may well require utilizing the bankruptcy code in a quick and surgical way,” the White House said in its statement outlining the plan.
Next thing you know we will have to let banks slip away, too…
General Motors announced yesterday that the company will be phasing out their Pontiac brand, and ceasing construction completely of the Saturn brand. They also say Hummer is doomed if they can’t find a buyer for the label by 31 March. Read more…
GM and Chrysler have made it clear that they need $21.6 billion in federal loans to stay afloat, in addition to the bailout money they have already received. They have also released detailed plans in which they cut 50,000 jobs, close several plants, and drop some of their weaker brands. Experts say this request for more money is no surprise.
The issue is not as much what the car companies are doing to cut costs, but what the government will do to stimulate car sales. Read more…
From the Wall Street Journal:
Troubled OneUnited Bank in Boston didn’t look much like a candidate for aid from the Treasury Department’s bank bailout fund last fall.
The Treasury had said it would give money only to healthy banks, to jump-start lending. But OneUnited had seen most of its capital evaporate. Moreover, it was under attack from its regulators for allegations of poor lending practices and executive-pay abuses, including owning a Porsche for its executives’ use.
Nonetheless, in December OneUnited got a $12 million injection from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. One apparent factor: the intercession of Rep. Barney Frank, the powerful head of the House Financial Services Committee.
Obama will arrive to his inauguration with class… and basically in a tank:
GM plans to reduce production by 250,000 vehicles in January by temporarily closing some of its factories. Twenty-one factories across North America will be affected. This comes after US talks of an industry bailout collapsed. Read more…
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