With the new Honda at $20K and the Prius at $26K (or so and soon to be reduced to compete with the Honda), how in the world does GM expect to sell a Volt at $40K or more or Ford the Fusion at $30K? At least the Tesla at $50K offers something new.

The economy is supposedly "global," why can't we compete globally? (We can certainly cause global meltdown!)

And how is restructuring " supposed to cure this?

I'll just wait for the movie
"How Onama killed the Volt"

GM dug themselves into this hole, and are coming back time and again for use to throw money at them. They are stuck in BAUland and need to do much more to right their ship, without asking us for corporate welfare.

People said the same thing about the internal combustion powered car. It took an innovator, Henry Ford, to demonstrate that mass production could make the car affordable.

GM is making the correct move with the VOLT. They now have an electric car platform but we knew all along that batteries are not the answer. Lead acids with 3-4 KwH of storage are good enough if the proper generator is installed.

A 30KW cogeneration Reinhardt Turbine costs only $300 and achieves 60%+ efficiency. Take the $35k of batteries out of the Volt and now you have a $10k car that gets over 100 mpg. The most successful ev1 had a 30KW Williams Turbine in the boot, the only problem was the turbine cost $1 million. Now the generator problem is solved.

What is interesting is that in the short run, turbodiesel power is the way to go.

Thanks to the work Ricardo done in the UK, we can now build turbodiesel engines that meet even the really strict CARB SULEV (EPA Tier 2 Bin 3) standard without needing urea gas injection into the exhaust stream, a huge breakthrough for such engines. Imagine GM putting the 1.9CTDi 16V engine with Ricardo emission control components rated at around 135 bhp (SAE 08/04 net) into the new Chevrolet Cruze--can you say fuel economy in the middle to high 40's for EPA highway rating based on the 2008 test? :-)

"Chrysler currently dedicates only 50% as many engineers to each platform, on average, as GM does."
This in itself is not necessarily bad.
If they were making awesome cars, that could be touted as an advantage.

If you are one generation behind in technology from your competitors, you are toast. You have to pick up the pieces and start over. Be a niche player until you figure it out, but you only have one product cycle to figure it out.

If GM was an example of american manufacturing pride, then we really stunk. Job banks, overlapping product lines, weak innovation, high costs, etc. The charade is up.

Now we have two groups trying to run this company that don't know what they are doing - government and the old management staff.

Hopefully, we'll get lucky and some clear thinking leaders from inside GM will emerge and get their chance to be stars.

I think that the assessment on the Volt is a realistic one. This analysis has to do with economic viability and the Volt will not be wildly popular at the price they will have to charge, especially in this economy and the one projected for several years.

I believe that if they offered a model that got 30 mile range for $35k or 20 miles for $30k, they might sell more, but not enough to get out of the hole.

Chrysler and GM should have been allowed to fail. In bankrupcy, the US government should have bought them for a total of no more than 2 billion US dollars as a set. The union contracts would all be null and void, with contracts renegotiated. The existing debts should have been renegotiated at the T-bill rate. As federal employees, the cost of health coverage for the employees would drop. Retirement payouts would be renegotiated downward and executive pay and perks slashed. Products would be produced according to national priorities, such as reducing the flight of capital to pay for oil. American would flock to the rapidly re-engineered products as a patriotic act. At the end of the administration's 8 year run, the combined company should be sold to the public.

What does this have to do with the volt? The point is that it is far too expensive for its economy car looks.
It's also too small for American tastes in its supposed $40K price range. Directly subsidizing the purchase price is idiotic. Lowering the cost of production is the only sensible way to go. The only way to significantly do that is for the government to produce the lithium batteries itself. This is the only subsidy which makes any sense, as the government can standardize the size and capacity of the batteries, and rationalize the packaging for the entire industry.

A cheaper, non-lithium battery should be an option for the Volt from the get-go, maybe with a 10-15 mile all electric range. Then it might sell well without subsidies.

Its simple realy. How old are baby boomers? They balloned the car market and now they implode it. Because the generation behind them is tiny. Same reason the housing market blew up.

When fuel hits $5/gallon (which it probably will in the next year or two), you won't be able to find a used hybrid.  The question is, is it better to build standard hybrids or Volts?

You'd have to up-rate the motors too; the Prius is not capable of continuous electric operation at higher speeds.

The battery question is a good one.  If you need 200 Wh/mi and a 40 mi AER with 20% reserve, you need a 10 kWh battery.  I'm seeing LiFePO4 running around $600/kWh retail, but that's for cells that charge at only 1 C; hybrid-class performance costs more.  Figure minimum $5k for the battery even at wholesale.

@ Wintermane,

Actually, the current 15-30 year olds are a bigger demographic wave than the baby boomers. It was being called the echo of the boom, but when you're bigger than the original, you're more than an echo.

The bigger problem for the North American Auto Industry is that there aren't that many people who want a car who don't have one in North America. It's not a growth market, it's a break-fix replace market.

Cognitive Dissonance: a conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistencies between one's beliefs and one's actions or other beliefs

So... liberals. Which do you choose? Your dream car, or your messiah?