A Chrysler VP was on ABC this morning (Sam Donaldson, et al). The VP did a reasonably good job of defending the merger. One of the journalists referred to a rumor (rumour) that that DAI was next looking at Nissan's truck business. Could Nissan be the Japanese partner?
Will Ford now back away from the FC partnership? Can they?
Where, exactly, is GM's FC program? Does anyone have any solid info at all?
Toyota?
The hybrid vehicle concept seems, to me, to be bogus or very short lived. I can't conceive that more moving parts under the hood has any viable future. Far too much energy is wasted today by ICEs.
Of course it's a gamble, betting on the future of an industry as large as this one, but the evidence , in my eyes, points to the major paradigm shift mentioned earlier. Of course it will be slow and agonizing to those who care, deeply, but, it would be silly to expect a dramatic overnight shift. Additional engineering will continue to be needed, attitudes learned over generations will have to change....
This is by definition, a tedious process.
In retrospect, even if the change does take 20+ years, this will have been a relatively short time-span, in a 100+ year-old industry.
If we can learn anything, from recent history, it's how shortsighted our technical vision has been. Can anyone participating in this forum, truthfully say that they anticipated (even 5 years ago?) anything remotely like what we now accept as normal.
Dave |
