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China logró producir autos eléctricos baratos. EE. UU. tiene que intentarlo también

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

Pasó muy rápido, tan rápido que tal vez no lo hayas notado. En los últimos meses, los tres grandes fabricantes de automóviles de Estados Unidos —Ford, General Motors y Stellantis, la empresa del nombre peculiar que es propietaria de Dodge, Chrysler y Jeep— comenzaron a estar en un gran aprieto.

Sé que esto puede sonar ridículo. Ford, General Motors y Stellantis obtuvieron miles de millones en ganancias el año pasado, incluso después de una larga huelga de trabajadores de la industria automotriz, y las tres empresas prevén un gran 2024. Pero hace poco, los Tres Grandes se vieron superados e imposibilitados de alcanzar sus objetivos de ventas de vehículos eléctricos al mismo tiempo que aparecía una línea de nuevos coches eléctricos extranjeros asequibles, listos para inundar el mercado mundial.…  Seguir leyendo »

Moses Lake, in central Washington State, has had a dearth of opportunities for young people in recent decades.

MundoAmérica,

Electric vehicles are rare in Moses Lake, Wash., a small city in the fertile Columbia Basin about a three-hour drive east of Seattle. In that conservative farms-and-factories community, few people have the cash or the inclination. The only electric vehicle I saw during a two-day visit last month was a Tesla in the hotel parking lot.

Over the next few years, however, hundreds of Moses Lake residents are going to be entering the electric vehicle business. Two different companies, attracted by cheap hydropower, are opening plants there, each backed by $100 million in federal money, to produce a key ingredient for electric vehicle batteries.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

Hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen diesel cars on the road in the United States with "defeat devices" are spewing 10 to 40 times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide into the air — and will never be repaired. Because most recalls are optional, many owners won't bother to comply.

From 2000 to 2008, the Government Accountability Office found on average that about 30% of defects were not fixed within 18 months of a recall. For some recalls, the failure-to-fix rate rose above 70%.

Volkswagen diesel owners are particularly likely to forgo repair of the emission problem because the solution will actually reduce their cars' fuel efficiency.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

When I announced three years ago that Toyota would open a U.S. vehicle assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss., I said Toyota was the world's premier automobile manufacturer. I still believe that.

Make no mistake, the safety and reliability concerns identified in some Toyota automobiles -- although they occur very infrequently -- are serious. It seems to me, however, that the company is doing everything it should as quickly as possible to make things right. This includes not just a full recall but also temporarily halting production in five plants to focus on the problem and repairing recalled vehicles. The company has taken significant steps to improve quality and reliability worldwide, and to increase the transparency of its communications with government officials and customers.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

America's Big Three automakers got pounded on Capitol Hill last month. Senators from both parties took turns ridiculing General Motors, Ford and Chrysler as out-of-touch fossils, churning out poor-quality products that virtually no one wants to buy.

Wouldn't it be nice if America's automakers actually made cars that customers wanted? New hybrids, for example, and electric vehicles, midsize cars that rank high in quality and more models that get 30 miles per gallon?

Actually, that's exactly what Detroit is doing. Not in a couple of years, not next year, but now.

I invite every member of the U.S. Senate to come visit the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opened yesterday.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

This week, as Washington has tried to decide whether to rescue the automobile industry, Americans have wondered what it looks like when a giant automobile company goes under. The answer can be found in Detroit.

In the summer of 1956, the once-mighty Packard Motor Car Company closed its doors. Its headquarters and chief production complex still stand here, though, and their slowly decaying remains serve as a symbol for the fall of American manufacturing in general and the degradation of the auto industry in particular. The Packard plant sits on East Grand Boulevard on Detroit’s east side. It is immense: 3.5 million square feet of space in 47 connected buildings.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Congress is debating the future of the American automobile industry. With our economy in crisis, this is not a time for ideology; it's a time for pragmatism and common sense. Amid daunting job losses and unprecedented fiscal challenges, the economy cannot sustain a body blow to one of America's most significant industries without giving it a chance to restructure.

The Big Three automakers directly employ nearly 250,000 Americans. Overall, the industry accounts for roughly 5 million jobs. The failure of the U.S. auto industry would have ramifications far beyond Michigan; the impact would be widespread. Every state has a stake in the industry -- suppliers in Ohio, dealerships in Texas and port workers in New Jersey.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Many commentators and members of Congress have declared that the best hope for the Big Three auto companies is to declare bankruptcy. Airlines have gone through bankruptcy and adjusted, after all, so why can’t carmakers?

This comparison is appealing, but flawed. Almost every carmaker that has ever gone bankrupt has disappeared for good. And there is no reason to believe the Big Three would not do the same. Chapter 11 filing would almost surely lead to liquidation.

Just as financial institutions depend on the confidence of those with whom they do business (as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers discovered), automakers depend on the confidence of car buyers.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

Speeding is the cause of 30 percent of all traffic deaths in the United States — about 13,000 people a year. By comparison, alcohol is blamed 39 percent of the time, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But unlike drinking, which requires the police, breathalyzers and coercion to improve drivers’ behavior, there’s a simple way to prevent speeding: quit building cars that can exceed the speed limit.

Most cars can travel over 100 miles an hour — an illegal speed in every state. Our continued, deliberate production of potentially law-breaking devices has no real precedent. We regulate all sorts of items to decrease danger to the public, from baby cribs to bicycle helmets.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica, ,

Energy independence is the wrong goal.

Oil, like all other goods, flows toward the highest bidder. Consequently, talking about "independence" in a global economy ruled by market forces is a contradiction.

As national policy, we must protect the U.S. economy from interruptions in the supply of such a critical commodity -- whether those interruptions are related to natural or political causes. I believe that the appropriate aim is to strengthen our energy resilience to adjust to such changes.

We can do this by increasing our reliance on electricity.

Electricity can be transported only over land. Consequently, it will stay in (or stick to) the continent where it is produced.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaInternacionalEconomía,

Who shot General Motors? The company’s stock is at its lowest level in 50 years, and its market valuation has plunged to $5.9 billion, less than that of the Hershey candy-bar company. The automaker is weighing yet another round of layoffs — and maybe even a fire sale of venerable brands like Buick and Pontiac.

General Motors once manufactured half the cars on the American road, but now it sells barely 2 in 10. Bankruptcy is not unthinkable for Detroit’s former king. The immediate cause of G.M.’s distress, of course, is the surging price of oil, which has put a chill on the sale of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and trucks.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

By George F. Will (THE WASHINGTON POST, 13/04/06):

It is better to be fired by General Motors than it is to be hired by most companies. Remember this when you are rightly ridiculing the riotous French who have successfully insisted that even workers under 26 should have property rights to their jobs. Remember because the accelerating crisis of private-sector welfare states such as GM prefigures the coming crisis of the public sector's entitlements.

France has been convulsed by young people whose sense of entitlement was affronted by a law -- now withdrawn in a triumph of mob rule -- that would have allowed employers to fire a young worker in the first two years of employment.…  Seguir leyendo »