zero emission efforts reveal delay tactic designed to keep control of market

General Motors has been bleeding money all over Europe. Last year the flood of losses totaled $900 M.

These facts are not surprising as European consumers have shown more backbone on environmental issues than their counterparts in North America and even in emerging markets in China and India.

Automakers are feeling the pinch as they face an unstable market, a fact that forced Daimler-Chrysler recently to sell off its losing Japanese division and head for home where, it says, it will refocus the enterprise on its core values of providing car buyers with top-knotch quality in its products.

Automakers are still trying to figure out which engine and car body designs will allow them to retain control of the vast manufacturing empires that supply parts for their vehicles. But perhaps more telling is how their decisions today will affect the control automakers have on the revenues generated in the used car market. This is the primary reason that automakers are soft selling hydrogen vehicles that have been ready in the form you see them today for several years in favor of pushing the benefits of the hybrid/electric vehicle.

The delays are part of a national security and corporate control effort aimed at keeping allies close and enemies closer. This is seen in the pending US government decision on the type of fuel and its delivery system for worldwide use. Without standards made in the US and entrenched by global automakers it isn't likely any change will be made without US approval.

In Oshawa, Ontario General Motors is building a new paint shop where it intends to dig in an fight it out with the union as employees of the neighboring plant will be under contract to one of GM's suppliers and not directly tied to GM. This tactic is a labor cost saving mechanism GM is known to have used in the past.

Unfortunately, GM has not placed value in the new paint shop on the development of carbon fiber technology or fuel cell dielectric plate production in a vacuum deposition environment. GM only stands to save on labor by circumventing automation agreements with the union and placing its trust in its immediate grasp of supply chain management.

The link attached to the headline above is to the General Motors Marathon project ending in Europe early June. True to the spirit of the Recreational or Sport categorization of the automobile the 10,000 km test will showcase the viability of a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle. In this case the hydrogen is in the form of liquid hydrogen, known to be a net energy loser.

Two years ago the NeCar direct methanol fuel cell car successfully toured Europe on a 6,800 km demonstration trip. The car was fuelled with methanol on board the vehicle.

Next month actor and renewable energy advocate Dennis Weaver will launch a California to Vancouver drive of various energy efficient cars.