GM touts electric-drive models amid bailout requests

By Tom LoBianco (Contact) | Thursday, December 4, 2008

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General Motors showed off its green wares at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference Wednesday, while members of Congress sat about a half-mile away on Capitol Hill deciding whether the carmaker would survive another year.

Not long after GM submitted its plan for a federal bailout to Congress, members of its alternative fuels division groused about international competition, which is heavily subsidized by foreign governments.

"This is not for the faint of heart; this is a very expensive business," said Britta Gross, manager for the company's hydrogen and electrical infrastructure division.

GM's chief executive officer, Rick Wagoner, is asking for $18 billion in taxpayer-backed loans to bail out his company, including $4 billion this year. GM, Ford and Chrysler are expected to ask for up to $34 billion in federal aid.

Mr. Wagoner drove to Washington on Wednesday in a Chevy Malibu Hybrid, a marked change from his last visit when he flew on a private jet. He also agreed to congressional demands to reduce his salary from $2.2 million to $1 a year.

Before lawmakers approve any bailout plan they said Detroit carmakers will have to retool to build cars that consume less gasoline or no gasoline at all.

Ms. Gross said retooling car plants could easily cost upward of a billion dollars depending on the plant, the cost of materials and what is being manufactured.

But critics of an auto bailout said money to aid carmakers and retool their plants was approved last year, as part of a larger energy bill, totaling $25 billion.

GM plans to put the Chevy Volt on the market by the end of 2010. The subcompact would run 40 miles on one full battery and would plug into any electrical wall outlet.

Part of the plan to mass produce Volts include overhauling GM plants in Detroit and Flint, Mich.

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