We pretty much knew this was coming when we heard that Michigan’s Economic Growth Authority approved state tax breaks for GM, but now it’s officially official. Insurance News Net has the full press release announcing GM’s $370m investment in a Flint plant to build small four-cylinder engines. The engines will be used in the Volt as range extender, and will power the Cruze in turbocharged form. Flint will become GM Powertrain’s “most flexible and competitive engine assembly lines in the world, with approximately 300 highly flexible stations that will allow assembly of multiple 4-cylinder engine families without retooling,” according to the General’s press release. The 552,000 square foot plan will be LEED certified and will operate as a landfill-free facility when it opens in 2010. Too bad it won’t retain more than 300 jobs, especially considering the state of Michigan will forgo $122.5m in tax revenue to attract the project. But hey, that’s a small price to pay to have blighted Flint associated with the immense Volt hype, right?

While Chrysler jumps headlong into the concept car vaporware EV game, Toyota is taking its usual evolutionary approach. Bloomberg reports that ToMoCo will stick with its Prius strategy, augmenting it only with a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) burning hybrid version of its Camry sedan. The CNG Hybrid is a response to lower natural gas prices in the US compared to normal gasoline, and the modest success of Honda’s CNG Civic. No pricing or efficiency information is currently available for the CNG Hybrid Camry. Meanwhile, Toyota is still driving down the replacement cost of its Prius-powering NiMh battery packs, which now set first and second-gen Prius owners back $2,299. Calling the Prius “as close to a silver bullet as you’re going to get,” Bill Reinert, national manager of advanced technology for Toyota Motor Sales claims “the reason the Prius was such a successful car is that the customer didn’t have to do anything to it.” And to those who say that hybrids are a “transitional technology,” Toyota will be selling a million Priora per year by 2010, before Chrysler and GM even start selling their highly-touted EVs. Slow and steady, as they say…

There have been rumors floating around that GM approached Isuzu with an offer to sell its mid-sized truck business. Rumors being what they are, multiple sources now say that Isuzu ain’t interested. Japan’s Corporate News reports that Isuzu and Toyota (5.9 percent owners) execs “sounded negative about the possibility the firm may buy General Motors Corp.’s truck operations.” According to that report, the two sides aren’t seeing eye to eye on a price for the operations, proving once and for all what a bitch the used truck market can be. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that Isuzu President Susumu Hosoi says his firm “will struggle to hit its full-year net profit target and has ruled out buying General Motors’ mid-sized trucks business.” Hosoi-san was unequivocal, saying Isuzu is not even planning on increasing its 40 percent stake in DMAX, a North American diesel engine joint venture with GM. The only place Isuzu is currently planning a new major site? Saudi Arabia, of course. No, seriously…

Our fearless leader has noted at least once that a RUF-fettled Porsche Boxster would always have a home in his heart. And though he’s never gone (quite) as far as calling global warming a crock of shit, we think that RUF’s latest eco-friendly offering might just be enough to make him stop worrying and love the environmental movement. Oh, did we mention that the latest Ruf Cayman offering is all-electric? That’s right, the infamous German tuning house is developing a lithium-ion powered mid-engined sportscar that has nothing to do with the Lotus Elise! With 204 hp and 480 lb-ft of zero-rpm torque, the RUF Cayman should hop from 0 – 60 in about four seconds, top out at 120 and have a range of 155-188 miles. Though carbon-neutral drag races with a Tesla might leave the RUF a little chastened (giving up 35kW of power to the Roadster as it does), RUF has an established clientele base and price-poit expectations that Tesla would kill for. Plus, with Detroit Electric, Dodge and Tesla all showing off EV variations on the Elise theme, the Cayman EV stands alone. As an everyday car, it’s also eminently more practical, useable and better looking too. Being a RUF, it will also cost several appendages and depreciate faster than the Zimbabwean dollar. Look for a concept unveiling sometime in October, with production and pricing to be announced.

TTAC tested a private car August 15.
Lieberman tested a press car September 19.

During the Civil War, General George McClellan headed the largest army in the North. McClellan was an astounding capable soldier– except for the part about fighting and winning a war. He was also insubordinate, rude and a potential political rival for President Lincoln. The president’s Cabinet recommended McClellan’s dismissal. “Who should replace him?” Lincoln asked. “Anybody!” they replied. “I can’t give the job to ‘anybody,’” Lincoln argued. “It will have to be a “somebody.” In the same sense, who can replace GM CEO Rick Wagoner?

Well, now that NBC’s lawyers have swooped down on the net like a helicopter appearing from out of nowhere, we can’t warn you not to click on a link to the entire episode of last night’s Knight Rider– the only TV show in the history of the world (ever) that can make Bewitched seem like Beowulf. Watch the preview above, but do not view the latest episode of the latest Knight Rider; you will never get that 42:38 seconds back. But if you feel you must, I highly recommend Autoblog’s live blog log as the best way to navigate to/around the truly excrutiating bits. Normally, Autoblog’s unabashed, puppy-dog-like love of all things automotive makes their PR-inspired analysis the equivalent of listening to an over-earnest co-worker describing a particularly boring meeting while he’s pissing in the adjacent urinal. But this time, Alex Nunez provides us with comic friggin’ gold. Or, if you prefer, haiku hilarity. “8:08: A Cobra (helicopter) shoots a missile at our fearless heroes. It is the world’s slowest missile.” I swear this is Autoblog’s. Best. Post. Ever.

You may recall (or continue to choose not to if you work in Motown) that 2007 marked the first year when more U.S. new car buyers shopped for Asian than American brands. The trend continues. Automotive News had a look at J.D. Powers’ recent stats on the subject and provide the takeaway: “The Asian edge grew in 2008, with 63 percent of buyers considering Asian cars and 55 percent American cars.” Yes, there’s overlap. And yes, “consideration” led to sales. “In a survey of nearly 30,000 new-car buyers conducted between May and July, J.D. Power found that Asian vehicles won out for 58 percent of buyers who considered both American and Asian new cars, up from 55 percent in 2007. Only 40 percent of consumers looking at cars from both regions chose American autos, down from 43 percent last year.” It gets worse. A lot worse. “Those who decided on American products cited a desire to buy American and the incentives that U.S. carmakers offer as their top two reasons for choosing an American brand. Those who bought an Asian vehicle cited better retained value, reliability and gas mileage as their top three reasons for choosing a car from that region, according to the survey.” And worse. “Consumers cited high prices, high monthly payments and low gas mileage as their top three reasons for rejecting a vehicle, the survey found.”

John Mizroch is, of course, pro-E85 to a fault. According to FarmWeek, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy told participants at a Indianapolis renewable energy conference that the nine billion gallons of ethanol “brought online to date” have saved consumers nationwide a “not-insignificant” 25 cents in per-gallon gasoline costs. And that’s just for starters. “I don’t personally believe it [corn-based ethanol] has added significantly to the price of food commodities. I think our industry could sustain up to the limits of the RFS.” (For those of you who don’t keep track of Uncle Sam’s every market distortion, that’s the federally-mandated 21b gallons of bio-fuels by 2022 Renewable Fuel Standard.) Yes, BUT– Mizroch admitted that DOE research now focuses on emerging fuel feedstocks, with “virtually no work in corn ethanol.” In other words, you got the ball rolling farmer John. We’ll take it from here. “Many of the players in the current industry are critical to the success of the future cellulosic, non-foodstock industry,” Mizroch asserted to FarmWeek. But not all or even most, we note. Well, not until the farm lobby gets involved, anyway.

Despite all the hush-hush talk of Russian oligarchs and Indian auto magnates, the tree-hugger (and GM’s) four-wheeled nemesis is still on the block, unloved and unsold. Yes, The General’s finally dropped the pretense that their HUMMER brand is under “strategic review.” With the American automaker scrimping for lost change (and borrowing billions from Uncle Sam), GM Treasurer Walter Borst is touring the globe with his cart and pony show, now with a “Make Me An Offer on Our French Factory” slide. According to the AP, who bought a “I Went to the Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance Conference and All I Got Was a Lousy GM Brand” T-shirt, “The slides posted on GM’s [investor] Web site Wednesday say the assets under review are worth $2 billion to $4 billion.” With high labor costs in Old Europe and rampant overcapacity everywhere, it would be wildly optimistic to think that the Strasbourg plant would get even a quarter of that amount. As for HUMMER, could there be a worse time to sell the brand? The really scary answer: yes. Meanwhile, GM’s determination to slice its way to profitability– or at least survival– continues unabated. The Detroit News reports that GM plans to “accelerate” its $10b cost-cutting program. Product development– save the federally funded and subsidized Chevy Volt and Cruze– is sure to take a hit. Look for more badge engineering at a dealer near you.

Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that the U.S. House of Representatives have passed a bill which includes authorization for $25b in federal low-interest loans for Detroit. The legislation, originally designed to help Detroit automakers retool 20-year-old-plus factories to build automobiles that are 25 percent more fuel efficient than similar models, cleared the Reps by a margin of 370 to 58. The Senate will rubber stamp the bill– whose main purpose is to keep government running in the new fiscal year that begins Octover first– by the weekend. President Bush is expected to sign it next week. And before that’s done, Detroit’s minions will do everything in their power to get their hands on the cash and subvert Congress’ original intent for the bailout billions.  As AN puts it, “The final version of the bill is expected to include language that would speed the issuance of the loans and the adoption of rules by the Department of Energy that would govern their use, said John Bozzella, Chrysler LLC’s vice president of global external affairs and public policy.” Meanwhile Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was over the friggin’ moon. “Some critics will call this loan package a bailout,” the Michigan democrats statement admitted. “It is not. These loans amount to a little more than 1 percent of the real bailout — the one that the Bush administration wants for Wall Street at a cost of $700 billion to taxpayers.” So it’s not a bailout that’s less than the other bailout. Makes sense to me.

Man, this news cycle is insane. Another Automotive News [sub] alert, this time telling us that the infamous Bill Heard dealership chain is toast. All 13 stores are about to close their doors. “The company notified the stores’ general managers at 2 p.m. today, the source said, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to speak.” The source offered a predictable litany of factors (aside from the fact that Bill Heard is one of the most reviled automotive chains in American history). “High fuel prices, cancelled floorplanning from GMAC Financial Services, a reliance on trucks and SUVs, a soft national economy and struggles in local markets had troubled the company, which on Sept. 12 closed its store in Scottsdale, Ariz.” The story behind the story will take some unearthing, but the damage to GM caused by the loss of “Mr. Volume” is calculable. “Bill Heard Enterprises, of Columbus, Ga., ranks No. 13 on the Automotive News list of the top 125 U.S. dealership groups, with 2007 group revenue of $2.13 billion.”

True dat. “The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia announced that the consumer confidence indicator increased 8 percentage points month-on-month in September to reach its highest level since August 2007.” Meanwhile, here in the U.S., “The customer is telling us that their head is in a completely different place than in April when gas went above $3.50 per gallon. Their heads are right now where, ‘I’ve got to be more careful and I feel like I have less wealth,’ and that brings the whole industry down.” Sorry we missed that little bit of Cheech and Chongism from FoMoCo’s Marketing Guy Jim Farley [via Reuters]. But even if Farley seems a little lost in the [blue] clouds, the man’s not wrong. The current U.S. financial meltdown is hardly likely to encourage the average American consumer to run down to his local car dealer and sign-up for a three to (gulp) six-year loan. And even if they felt so inclined, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress, “The intensification of financial stress in recent weeks, which will make lenders still more cautious about extending credit to households and business, could prove a significant further drag on growth.” Bailout bucks notwithstanding, with gasoline shortages and the prospect of recession looming, the U.S. car market has hit the wall. “Economic activity appears to have decelerated broadly,” Bernanke warned, with British-quality understatement. If you don’t know it now, wait ’til TTAC reports September’s new car sales results…