A Death Watch has begun recently for GM, Chrysler and anyone else caught unprepared for rapidly changing market conditions. And as US taxpayers ponder the bailout pitch US automakers have been making to our government, let's not lose our focus here by failing to face tough questions. Or at least a few half-baked, semi-coherent assertions that I'd like to walk you through now if you've got time?
It's my purpose with this site to reflect the world from the lens of EEStor Inc. So, let me put the difficult to swallow concepts on the table early. ONLY A TECHNOLOGY LIKE EESTOR's CAN SAVE U.S. AUTOMAKERS! You disagree? Here's my reasoning. The transportation costs of transporting goods became economically inviable with +$4 gasoline in the USA. The increased cost of goods coupled with the increased cost of personal transportation, specifically among owners of mini-vans and SUV's combined to shut down the US Automotive retailing activity. ( I sound like an economist, no? ) The solution is to promote low transportation costs by migrating rapidly to electric vehicles, something battery experts have told us won't happen until battery technology arrives to enable it. Despite fuel costs falling rapidly, the underlying premise remains. Oil is an unreliable cost that is too unstable to be too dependent upon moving forward. Any plan that our US government considers supporting should keep this in mind. Duh.
Given what we know now, that is, in relation to events of the past 6 months, it's not unfair to GM in particular to point out that when they killed the EV1, they were probably undoing their entire company's future. I'll let someone else make all the necessary connections to arrive at that truth but I will say that I believe there's something to be said there. (That's right, I'm not even going to deliver on the title of this article. Ha!)
Why do we really need behemoth-sized automakers anyway? (a thousand hands just hit their proximate foreheads) Analogically, I look at how many problems we face by being overly reliant on Microsoft software (cost, security, functionality) and wonder why can't the automakers be more like the new breed of really good software companies? The best software companies today are tightly focused on solving small but significant problems. I don't need 100% of my problems solved when it comes to software. I just need the top 80% to be extremely well solved because they address the problems that eat up most of my time. Whether we like it or not, we may be entering a phase in the automaker industry where small companies, particularly like Zenn Motor Company and hundreds of others compete on solving one piece of the puzzle. In Zenn's case, that might be the drive train and energy storage piece. Let other companies come up with aesthetics, crash safe technologies, electronics, other stuff. Make it all modular. You know, basically, make the automotive aftermarket the beforemarket. We need the auto-equivalent of the iPod unto iPhone.
Think this can't happen? It may already be under way...
....more great material for a documentary.
Keep trying. Maybe pick a previous post to edit.
geo, r u trying to get less web stats? good approach, if so.
As someone with a libertarian philosophy, I'm opposed to the "corporate welfare" of bailing out companies which have made disastrous business decisions. Certainly allowing the "big three" automakers to go bankrupt would be a blow to the American economy, but Chrysler at least has been bailed out before... and here they are back again with their hand out.
I think in the long run it would be better to let them go under. Leaner companies which don't have all the "baggage" of the Big Three will be better able to make cars which are more competitive in the international marketplace.
What I simply don't understand is how the US political conservatives could get their energy policy so fundamentally wrong. Using limited resources in a responsible way makes sense from every angle:
economically: you decouple your economy from a resource that will become more expensive over time
security: you don't depend on possibly unfriendly strangers for supply
environment: even if you don't believe the scientific consensus about greenhouse gases it is prudent to err on the side of caution
I plain and simply don't get it! How could this be a partisan issue?
They could not and did not see an alternative. We know it needs to be dreamed then executed but these companies are run by financial types with a 2-3 year of profits to focus on.
Conservatives have been in denial about the end of fossil fuels for decades. They have stuck a blunt stick in their eyes concerning global warming, they don't get the national security angle and most bizarre is they don't see the incredible business opportunity to supply the entire globe with the new technology.
B,
I have written about the potential for complete modularity of EV chassis, cabs wheel assemblies and powerpaks. Tomorrows vehicles will be purchased at Best buy and off road, extra people extensions, truck bed trailors, flat beds,towing, mobile office pods, racing, aquatic, snow, components can be robotically installed (like a car wash) and leased for weekend warriors or home projects.
Once you get rid of a drive train the fun never ends.
So call DW and let him know that we are ready to design once he gives a valid green light.