Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

WB9MCW · 06-21-2009

Subject: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole

(From a senior level Chrysler person)
Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was
David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor
at the Univ. of Michigan . You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or
referred to in the auto industry news lately.

Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the
difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has
sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+
year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the
industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry
experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero
engineering experience, tell them how to run their business.

Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows:

There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer,
automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to
Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric
and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so
we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were
quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some
website.

Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of
batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that
there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them
from...

The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws
of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the
others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the
congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an
executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to
fix these sort of issues".

06-21-2009	#1
WB9MCW Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: McHenry, Il. Posts: 6,584	Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole Subject: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole (From a senior level Chrysler person) Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor at the Univ. of Michigan . You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately. Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+ year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero engineering experience, tell them how to run their business. Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows: There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer, automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some website. Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from... The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to fix these sort of issues".