Eideard

When production of the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano kicks off this fall, 40 percent of the energy that powers General Motors’ Orion Assembly Plant will come from methane captured from a nearby landfill site. This use of the landfill gas will reduce GM’s energy costs by $1.1 million a year and cut the amount of greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides released into the atmosphere.

Use of landfill gas is one of several methods GM is using to lessen the Orion Assembly Plant’s environmental impact. Others include: lighting system upgrades that will save an estimated 5,944 megawatts of electricity per year while also slashing CO2 emissions by 3,676 metric tons and an upgraded paint shop that’s heated by natural and landfill gas and uses approximately half of the energy (per vehicle) of the outdated paint shop that it replaced.

Maureen Midgley, GM’s executive director of global manufacturing engineering, says that these modifications will enable the Orion Assembly Plant to “reduce greenhouse gas production by about 80,000 metric tons at a full three-shift capacity.” That’s roughly equivalent to the combined annual emissions from 14,000 vehicles.

Hey, every little bit helps. Don’t discount GM’s “radical” conversion to energy [and cost] savings. There is no doubt that the loans to GM that brought them back from near-extinction included a lot of ear-bending and arm-twisting about entering the 21st Century.

Good sense and economics often isn’t sufficient to modernize politicians or capitalists.

I seem to have bumped into more than the usual number of looneybirds, dumb crooks and foolishly dangerous human beings in my reading around the world, around the Web, today. But, I think I’ll ignore ‘em for a nice guy-tale from General Motors.

Yes, you read that right. General Motors has indeed taken scrap battery covers that would otherwise have been discarded and, with the help of a team of youngsters from the Lasky Recreation Center in Detroit, turned them into duck houses.

Seems odd, no doubt, but we’d certainly rather see creative recycling such as this instead of sending off the scrap bits and pieces to rot for hundreds of years in a landfill or some other ignominious end-of-life scenario.

According to The General, these homes “will provide a safe place for wood ducks and even screech owls to lay their eggs.” For what it’s worth, this is the second such creative recycling project we’ve heard about from the team behind the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the first being the reuse of oil-soaked boom material from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made into underhood plastic Volt parts. Nice work, GM.

I agree.

General Motors said on Thursday that it was withdrawing its application to borrow $14.4 billion from a pool of federal money intended to help automakers build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

G.M., whose request had been pending with the Energy Department for 15 months, said the decision was based on improved cash reserves and a desire to avoid more debt. The company was profitable in 2010 and had $33.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of Sept. 30 — much of it the result of federal loans related to its 2009 bankruptcy filing — up from $22.8 billion a year ago.

“This decision is based on our confidence in G.M.’s overall progress and strong, global business performance,” Christopher P. Liddell, G.M.’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “Withdrawing our D.O.E. loan application is consistent with our goal to carry minimal debt on our balance sheet…”

Congress created the $25 billion fund in 2008, and the Energy Department has lent about $8.5 billion of it so far. The Ford Motor Company received $5.9 billion — about half the amount it requested — with smaller amounts going to Nissan, Tesla and Fisker…

G.M. said that, even without the retooling loans, it had invested $3.4 billion in its American plants since emerging from bankruptcy, creating or retaining 11,000 jobs. Much of the upgrade was related to the manufacture of new high-mileage cars like the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt as well as batteries…

Separately Thursday, G.M. said it was accelerating the introduction of the Volt, a plug-in hybrid, in response to customer demand. Dealers in all 50 states will be able to take orders in the second quarter and start receiving the cars in the second half of the year. Previously, G.M. had said the Volt would not be available nationwide until mid-2012.

They’re also talking about doubling production of the Volt. Reception from retail customers has been better than anything they might have hoped for – at least what automotive journalists stuck into the carbon cycle thought they would get.

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The US Treasury has sold its remaining stake in Citigroup, in a deal which it says will make a $12 billion profit on its overall investment.

Citigroup was one of the worst victims of the financial crisis, and the US government stepped in with $45 billion of bail-out cash in 2008 and 2009. The money was part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

On Monday, the government sold off its remaining shares in the bank for $4.35 each.

“By selling all the remaining Citigroup shares today, we had an opportunity to lock in substantial profits for the taxpayer,” said Tim Massad, acting assistant secretary for financial stability.

“We have advanced our goals of recovering Tarp funds, protecting the taxpayer and getting the government out of the business of owning stakes in private companies,” Mr. Massad said in a statement…

The US government is in line for further earnings from Citi through the sale of warrants and preferred securities it holds.

In parallel to Citi paying off its debts, carmaker General Motors is likewise shedding itself of government control.

And the US Treasury is expected to begin selling off its stake in insurance giant AIG next year.

It is now estimated that the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost the US taxpayer $25 billion, much less than earlier estimates.

$25 billion = the approximate cost of 2 months of our glorious wars for freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

All hail the conquering heroes. All hail Caesar!

General Motors launched a new small car on Monday priced at about 7,000 dollars that will be released first in the Indian market and eventually sold in 150 countries.

The Chevrolet Beat is a compact hatchback aimed at the growing Indian middle classes that GM hopes will help boost its sales in the country by 30 percent this year to 100,000 units…

The Beat, to be priced at 334,000 rupees in its basic model, will be sold in more than 150 countries worldwide, including Europe, other parts of Asia and North America, the company said…

The Beat will be one of the attractions at AutoExpo 2010 in New Delhi, which runs until January 11 and is a showpiece for compact vehicles.

Slym also said GM India would double production at its Talegaon plant in the western state of Maharashtra to 90,000 cars per year because of the Beat’s introduction.

The critter targets 44mpg for all-round consumption. From what I’ve read, strength and safety standards for the Euro and US markets are designed-in.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

America’s biggest motor manufacturer, General Motors, performed an abrupt U-turn [and has decided] to keep its European car manufacturing division, abandoning a proposed sale of Germany’s Opel and Britain’s Vauxhall brands at the eleventh hour.

Emboldened by encouraging global sales figures, GM’s directors emerged from a meeting of the company’s 13-strong board in Detroit to announce that an improvement in the European business environment had prompted them to change their minds about offloading the business, which employs 55,000 people, including 5,000 in Britain.

Instead of selling the operation to the Canadian car parts firm Magna, GM intends to spend €3 billion on restructuring the division “in earnest” – a process still likely to involve government aid and that may yet lead to significant job cuts…

“While strained, the business environment in Europe has improved,” said GM’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson. “At the same time, GM’s overall financial health and stability have improved significantly over the past months, giving us confidence that the European business can be successfully restructured…”

“We understand the complexity and length of this issue has been draining for all involved,” said Henderson. “However, from the outset, our goal has been to secure the best long-term solution for our customers, employees, suppliers and dealers, which is reflected in the decision reached today…”

Monthly sales figures released earlier yesterday provided an indication that business was improving. GM’s US car sales in October were up 4% in comparison with the same month in 2008 – the first year-on-year rise since January last year.

As a lifetime motorhead, I’ve spent an appropriate amount of time pointing out what I liked and disliked about GM. Aside from Zora Arkus-Duntov there hasn’t been much initiated in Detroit I found worthwhile. The Euro divisions were an occasional bright spot – even when they were prevented by the home office from offering much of anything new.

None of this will be easy; but, I’m not the sort of critic who wishes the object of my criticism to fail.

General Motors says it is to invest more than $1 billion to develop two new car models in Brazil despite woes at the company’s US headquarters. GM says the planned investment should create about 1,000 jobs. A government tax break which cut the cost of new vehicles in Brazil, led to GM seeing record sales in the country.

The expansion comes as GM emerges from bankruptcy proceedings as a private company which is majority owned by the US government. However, GM in Brazil is financially independent of the US company – and it has been keen to stress that there will be no dependence on products from the United States.

Half of the investment will come from the company itself and the rest from loans from state-run banks, says the BBC’s Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo…

The US government has a 60.8% stake in the new U.S. company, while Canada and a United Auto Workers union retiree healthcare trust fund also have a stake.

The “old GM” will retain a 10% stake – this is to allow creditors to recover some of their losses.

Looking at the value of some of their latest product, I actually think they can work their way out of the dungeon a bit faster than expected. Their design studio is still stuck in the 1950′s’ but, then, that’s true of a significant portion of the world’s consumers.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

General Motors, which emerged from bankruptcy on Friday, now must tackle its next thorny problem — its own management team.

The company’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, plans to ask more than 400 of the 1,300 executives in the United States to resign or retire.

“It’s a very painful process,” Mr. Henderson said in an interview on Friday, just hours after G.M. emerged from its 40-day tour through Chapter 11. “We don’t have a lot of bad executives. We just have too many of them.”

The cuts pale in comparison to the tens of thousands of factory workers and salaried employees who have been eliminated during G.M.’s long decline.

But even as G.M. racked up huge losses in recent years, the company hardly touched its bloated management ranks, where even the most obscure vice presidents were given their own public relations person…

G.M. has traditionally been more insular than its crosstown rivals Ford and Chrysler, and rarely fired senior executives, even if their business units performed poorly.

Instead, executives would be moved to a different job, often overseas.

But now that G.M. is a government-owned entity that has received $50 billion in federal loans, the company cannot afford “business as usual,” Mr. Henderson said.

RTFA. Ain’t a bad start. Hope they pick and choose well – who they keep, who they nudge out the door.

GM isn’t building anything I’d want to own – yet – but, I’d like to be able to give them the chance.

See if they can offer something even less useful?

General Motors said that it intended to draw down the remaining 3.5 billion dollars of its 4.5-billion-dollar secured revolving credit facility to maintain what the auto giant described as “high level of financial flexibility” at a time when the financial markets are uncertain.

Borst said the proceeds from the draw would also be available to be used to retire 750 million dollars of debt maturities coming due in October, and to pay Delphi Corporation in excess of 1.2 billion dollars as part of its reorganization efforts, assuming court approval of the revised agreements between GM and Delphi that were filed with the court earlier this month.

The US Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation had demanded that bankrupt the Delphi Corp come up with 1.2 billion to cover pension liabilities by the end of September…

GM secured the 4.5-billon-dollar revolving credit facility in July 2006 from a consortium of banks and provides liquidity that GM can draw on from time to time to fund working capital and other needs.

If you clean out the silo, maybe you’ll also look more like a legitimate beneficiary in the next round of bail-outs, eh?