As spring blossoms in beautiful Detroit, Volt Reality Syndrome is starting to kick in with a vengeance. The latest victim is UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who tells Reuters "When GM brings out that electric car, they're going to be taking a huge loss on that for a number of years." Of course reality is kind of Gettelfinger's thing. "Everybody is racing to get there, but there are some tough issues and cost is definitely going to be an issue for the consumer," says Ron, of the brave new hybrid/alt energy future. "It's pretty clear to me that, if it's not technically feasible and economically feasible, then you're not going to get there from here." Bold words from a bold man, but where's the proverbial beef? Whither the future, Mr. Gettelfinger?  "There's nothing like the internal combustion engine," says Ron. "We've got 100 years with that baby." Although Gettelfinger comes across like your great-uncle who's convinced that they never should have done away with lead paint or child labor, he actually has a decent point. Most cars on the market could be made significantly cleaner and more efficient without resorting to complex hybrid drivetrains.

"It's raining cars in the Indian automobile market," says The Economic Times. Credit the increase in Indian auto sales to a four percent cut in the excise duty. Hyundai Motor India Ltd. has experienced a record 52.3 percent sales boost, and managing director and CEO H. M. Lheem says "The high sales have come on the back of good demand for our small cars." Meanwhile in Thailand, the theme at the 29th annual Bangkok International Motor Show is "The Environmental Auto Globalization" (i.e. surprise: green is in!). Organizers point out that the major cause of global warming "includes vehicle and fuel energy," and automakers have rolled out plenty of hybrid and electric cars. Anyway, the show is dominated by Japanese carmakers. "[T]hey sort of dominate eyespace," says reporter Meenakshi Verma, adding that it's "hardly surprising Bangkok's roads already seem dominated by pickups from that country." He points out that Thailand is "the second largest market for pickups after U.S." And after leaving the show, the Times reporter says he ended up "right in the middle of one of Bangkok's infamous traffic jams," where his informal "straw poll of the cars stuck on the road," confirmed that "pickups are the favorite mode of transport in Bangkok.

Last Thursday, GM asked the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for "extra credit." Despite the fact that Chevy's gas-electric plug-in hybrid isn't in production, the General's generals wanted the rules modified so the Volt could more fully satisfy the Golden State's Zero Emissions Vehicle requirements. Done. And then, today, GM announced it will build 1000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for the same purpose. Only it wants someone else (i.e. taxpayers) to fund 40 hydrogen refueling stations. Once again, GM's reveals its core weakness: ADD.

We've never known quite what to make of the A3. Sure, sure, it's a great car with the DSG and the AWD and the big engine, but then the price tag can bump $40k and well, STI please. Those in the know also know that underneath the A3's pretty skin sits the guts of a Volkswagen Golf, er Rabbit. Even at "just" $25K, that's expensive. However, those that don't know, don't care and the A3 has been selling well. Well enough in fact that Motor Authority is reporting Audi will be developing a number of A3 variants. These include but are not limited to a 3-door hatch, a convertible, an S3, a wagon, a small sedan, a sportback and an A3 Allroad. Also, one can never forget that Audi is a German company, meaning that each successive must be bulkier than the previous. And since the new A4 has swelled to nearly BMW 5-Series proportions, expect the 2011 A3 to compete size-wise with the Bavarian 3-Series. If not price-wise, too.

Plastech is working on bankruptcy financing to keep the company afloat through the summer. However, instead of going to traditional lenders, they're going hat-in-hand to their customers for an $80m line of credit. The Detroit Free Press reports Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), GM, FoMoCo and Chrysler are expected to share the pain to ensure a steady flow of plastic parts to their assembly plants through the summer. Experts say the loans are a smart move, as the cost of the loan would be less than the cost of stopping an assembly line due to a parts shortage. At the same time, some of Plastech's other lenders are talking with JCI about the possibility of them buying Plastech's interior component operations. Plastech is preparing its customers for the possibility they could go out of business by building a bank of parts. Watch this space as the continuing soap opera unfolds.

GM must have a lot more cash laying around than they're letting on. The Wall Street Journal [sub]  reports The General is thinking seriously about taking on more of Delphi's pension liabilities on top of the $1.5b they've already agreed to assume. In an SEC filing last month, Delphi stated their pension fund is short about $3.8b; how much of that extra $2.3b GM is thinking about taking on is anyone's guess. However, experts say getting the pension money from their sugar daddy will grease the skids for six major investors who had planned to pump $2.55 into the company. The investors are threatening to take their money and run if Delphi can't get everything straightened out by Friday, so expect GM to act quickly. Then all Delphi has to do is come up with $6.1b in debt financing to exit Chapter 11. Piece o' cake!

We've been flagging the fact that the sexy (to some) prototype electric – gas plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt failed its wind tunnel test by a mile. In other words, it will NOT look like the chopped roof show car still trotted-out at auto shows and featured heavily in GM's ads. (TTAC ME Frank Williams is convinced it'll look like a squished Malibu.) The Detroit News reports that "Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said that aspect of the vehicle's development is officially complete. But a group of reporters and analysts from around the country who will converge in Warren today won't likely get to actually see the car's design, even though they're in town for the latest news on GM's ambitious attempt to build an electrically driven car for the masses." Go on, give us a clue… "Designing the Volt was especially tricky because GM needed to fit a battery pack 'the size of a linebacker' into a car essentially the size of a Chevrolet Cobalt, with enough room for four passengers to fit comfortably inside, Burns said." Another one! "The finished Volt will bear a 'clear family resemblance' to the sporty vehicle initially shown at last year's Detroit auto show, Burns said. 'But it won't be a twin.'" TTAC will pay $500 for an exclusive first picture of the new Volt. 

Something I’ve noticed: no discussion on corporate governance can go longer than five minutes before executive compensation comes up. It’s as predictable as “the scream” coming up when discussing Howard Dean. And why not? As a possible recession looms, executive pay remains the same. If North America’s economy is coming down with the mumps, its automotive industry may as well have Ebola. Chrysler was declared “operationally bankrupt” by its own its own CEO (before a cynical volte-face), while billion-dollar losses mount at GM and Ford. Yet all the people at the top of America’s piston pyramid continue to be compensated quite luxuriously. What’s up with that?

Sometimes, the spin is so obvious it speaks for itself. This official post-Press announcement re: the former Toyota current Chrysler exec's claim that the Japanese government funded the development of the Prius— since denied by Toyota– is a perfect case in point. "Chrysler Statement on Hybrid Battery Development: There have been several news reports today concerning statements made by Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman and President Jim Press on battery development for hybrid vehicles. First of all, Press was not speaking negatively of Toyota. In a recent interview, he referenced the close cooperation between the Japanese government and Japanese industry. He said the Japanese government strongly supported R & D (research and development) investment in battery development, and the Prius and other Japanese models benefited from that investment in industry. He cited this as an example of cooperation between government and industry working together on public policy issues. He went on to say that he would like to see similar cooperation in the United States in order to find technological improvements that help give U.S. companies a competitive advantage." I guess that's what goes for an apology in this biz.

A recent survey of U.S. auto industry executives by law firm Dykema Gossett and reported in the Detroit News shows that the corporate office boys prefer John McCain for president. Seventy percent of the 46 executives polled chose McCain, although no candidate was seen as "pro-automotive." "Respondents do not broadly point to McCain as having a solid pro-automotive record," says the report. "Instead they tend to emphasize the anti-automotive and anti-business messages they associate with Clinton and Obama." The "most important issues" list is topped by energy policy, followed by tax increases and the green movement. Curiously, only 11 percent of respondents said state-by-state attempts to exceed federal automotive regulations were their top concern, although for many that may have fallen under the nebulous "green movement" issue. The most telling stat of all? Not a single respondent was optimistic about prospects for the industry, with a whopping 87 percent expressing a negative outlook. At least you can't call them completely oblivious.

In February, we told you Chrysler was outsourcing some of its IT to Tata Consultantcy Services (yep, relation!). At that time, Chrysler Chief Information Officer Jan Bertsch promised to "keep [the employees] apprised of the outcomes of our efforts." Well, now the Detroit Free Press tells the rest of us what some of those "outcomes" are: people got fired. Everyone knew it was the plan, but now it's happened.  Chrysler is outsourcing 200 of its full-time employees, some 20 percent of its IT workforce. Ms Bertsch explains: "we thought a year ago that rather than try to cost-cut continually over time, we wanted to step back and look at our business and say, 'Where do we really need to move to service our customers better?'" Without over-analyzing that little insight into the Chrysler management paradigm, this means that recently-signed contracts with Tata and Computer Sciences Corp will eliminate the need for in-house mainframe and computer technology service. No word on how much Chrysler is saving, but Ms Bertsch assures us that "We would have never embarked on this scale of a project had the savings not been substantial." Not to worry though. "Some people will stay, some people will leave and some people will be interviewing with the new provider and perhaps be offered a position with them," purrs the "Chief (Orwellian) Information Officer." Aw.

One topic that TTAC has steered clear of is the constant liveblogging of announcements about Knight Rider. I realize that retro-1980s stuff is cool for some people, and Knight Rider is nominally about a car with gadgets. But seriously, who cares? It's not previewing some heretofore unseen production model, and it's got all the same boring action as modern action films with fake car-chase scenes so over the top they're just mundane. How many times can we watch a car leap off a bridge, enter orbit, fix a satellite, re-enter the atmosphere, stop at Taco Bell and then land on a Persian rug? The Knight Rider debut had 13 million viewers, which is comparatively pretty high for fiction shows (but a fraction of what American Idol gets), but much like initial car interest, new TV shows often do well the first time, then their ratings fall off a cliff. Worst of all, this "futuristic" car isn't even that cool. If they really wanted to appeal to the male youth demo, why not have KITT be an Evo instead of a Mustang? Oh right, because Knight Rider is a giant commercial.

Everyone has their dream car and usually it's not very practical to use as a daily driver. Mine is an Audi RS4 Cabriolet. However, since my left leg would probably fall off from driving it in Atlanta's bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go rush-hour traffic, I'd also need an A4 Cab with an automatic for everyday use. However, if someone told me I was limited to having only one car that would be my only way of getting around and schlepping things for the next 10 years, I'd probably pick something a bit more versatile… like, say, an A4 Avant so I could have a bit more cargo capacity. (What can I say… I like A4s!) So what about you? If you were stuck with one vehicle as your only transportation for the next ten years, what would it be and why?

On April 1st, 2008 significant modifications to road safety regulations in the Canadian provinces of Québec and Nova Scotia went into effect. CTV.ca reports that handheld cellular phones are now verboten while at the wheel, though hands free devices are still tolerated. Nova Scotia will begin ticketing the offense immediately, while Québec has allowed for a three-month grace periods in which offenders will only receive stern warnings and moralizing sermons. The first offense in Nova Scotia will cost $165, while costing $80-$110 and three demerit points in Québec. Still not satisfied, road safety advocate Jean-Marie de Koeninck argues that "[h]ands-free is just as dangerous. (But) by forbidding the hand-held it does send a signal that there is a problem with the cellphone, there's a problem with concentration". Meanwhile, the same traffic safety bill in Québec also doubled all speeding fines , with new suspension of license provisions for those caught traveling at 40 km/h over the limit in under-60 zones, 50 km/h in 60-90 over zones, and 60 km/h over in 100+ zones. All in the name of safety, presumably.

CTV.ca  reports that John Baird, Canada's firebrand Minister of the Environment, has green-lighted a $90 million vehicle scrappage program. In essence, the objective of the program is to encourage Canadians to trade in their high-emission beaters in favor of credits on a new car. CTV notes that "[t]hese older vehicles make up just a fraction of the estimated 18 million vehicles in Canada, but they account for up to two-thirds of the pollution that causes smog." There is a current mish-mash of recycling programs in Canada, but the new legislation aims at creating a national, uniform program for beaters nationwide. Though one can't argue with the aesthetic merits of getting some of the ancient, rusted-out Pontiac Parisiennes off Canadian roads, one has to wonder about how enticing any recycling credits would really be. All of those clunkers, being fully depreciated and cheap to insure, have  very low cost of ownership, which usually (and easily) offsets any extra fuel costs. Unfortunately, specifics of the plan have not been announced by the Federal government, which makes any assessment of its effectiveness difficult, at best.