"Did the Big 3 accidentally spur Toyota to create the Prius? In a fascinating editorial, the Christian Science Monitor notes: "... from 1993 to its end in 2001, the industry-government Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles set a goal to develop mid-sized hybrid vehicles that by 2004 could get 80 m.p.g. Few within the Big Three took the program seriously...concluded that the mileage and affordability goals couldn't be reached by 2004. Japan, on the other hand, saw the US program as a significant threat."-Hybrid Owners of America (HOA) "The Big Three want federal aid for battery research to beat Japan's hybrids. Playing catch-up won't be easy." The CS Monitor's View http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0118/p08s02-comv.html
Do US carmakers need a jump-start? . . . The battery challenge. No, I don't believe the US auto makers need a jump-start at this time . . . but, at this rate of decline, it would be prudent to make sure the defibrillator has a battery installed and is fully charged.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HBO6 @ Jan 19 2007, 12:58 AM) [snapback]377620[/snapback]</div> This isn't really new. I believe I read this take on things on John1701a's website a year ago. Clinton tried to prod the big-3 into making a high-efficiency car with the PNGV program, the first thing Bush did was to dissolve that, then replace it with the pie-in-the-sky fuel-cell initiative. Meanwhile Toyota, who wanted to join the NPGV but were rebuffed and worried about being left behind, essentially did on their own what the Big-3 were grudgingly trying to do. And now the Big-3 wants a redo.
Maybe the Big 3 should talk with the Energizer bunny. He's been going..and going...and going for years.
"Japan's hybrid cars are eating Detroit's lunch. Now the Big Three want $500 million in federal aid for battery research to help them leapfrog Toyota and build US-made "plug-in" hybrids that can be "refueled" at local AC outlets such as a home garage." I though affirmative action was banned from the united states.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jan 20 2007, 02:29 PM) [snapback]378371[/snapback]</div> Only for the poor. Dave M.
