President Donald Trump recently wrapped up an important meeting with the CEOs of Ford, General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler. Following the meeting, which was said to mostly surround job creation and strengthening the United States’ manufacturing base, GM CEO Mary Barra released an official statement regarding the discussion.
The statement reads as follows:
We had a very constructive and wide-ranging discussion about how we can work together on policies that support a strong and competitive economy and auto industry, one that supports the environment and safety. The U.S. is our home market and we are eager to come together to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing. We all want a vibrant U.S. manufacturing base that is competitive globally and that grows jobs. It’s good for our employees, our dealers, our suppliers and our customers.
Barra’s company has been the source of criticism from President Trump as of recent, after calling out GM for its Mexico operations. The GM CEO herself stated production of the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback would not leave Mexico.
However, Barra was also tapped to join the president’s Economic Advisory Panel. She and a handful of other businessmen and women will provide private sector insight for President Trump.
Comments
Donald Trump wants all car companies to move factories back to the United States or risk having 35-percent tariffs placed on the cars being imported to the United States after Trump withdraws the United States from NAFTA; but it works both ways as Trump and the US will need to offer incentives to move a factory.. as well as the possibility that General Motors will begin redesigning their cars and factories to require less man-power to build their vehicles as Apple said they would consider building a new iPad and iPhone factory in the Unites States except it would be totally automated and would not need any workers to assemble their products which means Apple will get to enjoy the tax breaks from the Trump Administration will give while not adding any jobs.
In the case of an Apple/Foxconn factory in the US, jobs would be added as it takes humans to program, maintain and service automation systems. These jobs would also pay better than repetitive assembly work.
the thing about programming is that it can be done anywhere.
i bet foxconn has an army of programmers back in china. why wouldn’t they just send them the specs and get the code back?
“Designed in California” is more than just a tag line. There’s no replacement for in-person supervision, and the turnaround on changes is much quicker if you are closer. There is also a real cost in money, and more importantly time for shipping finished product back from China.
There are differences between a job and a career. Robotics and industrial programmers usually have the latter, and usually aren’t categorized in the same way unskilled jobs are.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you’re not an economist.
I hope he told Barra and others to go for it and bring back as many cars and trucks with big V8s as they can since EPA will be dismantled and squashed pretty soon. 🙂
Although, let’s not forget GM is opening another 6.2L V8 production line in Tennessee, was it? That means they’re planning on more 6.2L V8 offerings.
Utilizing the Nissan multiple compression engine technology blended with electronic valve actuating, and multi tier fuel injection port and direct. One could produce a hybrid engine that runs on Diesel and Gas by adjusting compression ratio and fuel type. That would be a sweet setup, Torque like a diesel into high revving gas, and economy by adjusting all with cylinder deactivation. Basically one motor for all vehicles, sort of the Subaru methodology of drivetrains.
Sorry the EPA is ham strung and there is little chance major changes will come and will be lasting anyways.
Also they need to make things for the global market and that is not large V8 engines etc.
Obama tied things up pretty well at the EPA.
Now they may get to hold back on the 53 MPG by 2025 but in 4-8 years that could be changed back so MFG are not going to make large changes from the path they are on.
I would love it to toss them out but it is just not realistic on a global and political level.
I would like to see them knock off the expected CAFE and give them some room to work and not put them on the spot as odds are slim the EV will help them make it to 53 MPG by 2025.
It would be a nice incentive for moving jobs back too.
If there’s one thing the previous admin did right, it was requiring stringent MPG regulations. My little 1.4T gets to 60 in around 7.5 seconds and has plenty of passing punch. My old G6 GT v6 couldn’t get up to speed that fast and only got 23MPG combined. With my 1.4T, the rest of the time I’m saving a ton of money at the pump, getting close to 500 miles a tank. No, we don’t want big V8s back. Pass. Been there, done that. Instead they should stick to making powerful, fuel efficient engines that won’t break the bank.
I’d be happy to see GM bring back some smaller displacement V8s like the 5.7l to put in sporty variants of their large sedans. Give the Impala and LaCrosse a V8 with around 400hp, AWD and tweaked handling. Surely that’s cheaper than trying to get the same power out of a turbocharged V6. (Long live the V8!)
I’m all for killing ourselves, our children, and our planet — so that — we never have to hit our heads and say, “I could have had a V8.”
Well here is the deal.
Sure you could keep things as they are now and there the Jobs in Mexico stay in Mexico. Nothing improves here what so ever.
Or you can try to make the economy more appealing to do business here and try to give the companies a reason for moving back.
The reality is auto plants create more jobs than just production. They produce the people who make the machines for the plant. They create the jobs to service the machines. They create jobs for the people who work at the plants with local restaurants, gas stations shopping and more. Just look at the towns in Michigan that lost plants and how many businesses it takes with it.
While those on the left like to toss up their hands and say it is useless it is a case of it is more than you have now and more than you will get if you do nothing.
The real lie is everything will be replaced with machines. I hate to tell you most plants now are as automated as they can be. There are limits to what they can do. Besides who here is dumb enough to not think they have done all they can to this point.
One thing I wish Trump would address is the workers. He should also challenge the workers that if they jobs are brought back it is up to them to show up everyday ready to work, They come not hung over or on drugs, They also do a quality job in what they do. Americans have in many cases a poor work etic and we need to get that back as that has also been part of the problem.
Not all jobs will come back but many can and some can be retained here.
Just look at the history of some of the automation the automakers have tried and some work and some do not work.
GM also is not Apple.
The problem with Apple is to move here much of the work force would have to be trained as many of the plants they have are people who have been doing this kind of work for a long time. Also many items they use are made in China so parts would have to be shipped here. Still there are limits they can so to automate things.
Some folks think everything can be automated but the truth is some things can many things still can not be. It is not cheap to do automation on many things either but it is more cost effective at times due to poor human work habits.
The long and short of it people need to drop the talking points on the left that we should do nothing because of automation as while we may not return 100% of what we lost we would gain back much more than what we have not and more than we would get other wise.
The left has screwed around for so long trying to make all industry evil for their own personal needs that they have done so little for the American worker they are in a place to be found out by the average citizen.
The long and short of it is something is better than nothing.
“GM also is not Apple.”
By the by — Apple is no longer Apple.
Folks outside of tech scoff. But look how profitable Apple is, they say. Why iPhone sales have never been so high, they say. Mac sales have never been so high either.
Pay closer attention and you learn something shocking.
1. Android phones are catching up to or have caught up to Apple. But for less money. Sometimes WAY less money. (I’ve used iPhones for the last 8 years. I’ve switched to OnePlus. Twice the phone, half the price. I can afford iPhone but see the Tim Cook phones as a criminal ripoff.)
2. Windows 10 PCs are now %80 as good as their Tim Cook’s Macs. The problem is Macs are twice as much… and sometimes three times as much. THREE TIMES for %20 better. And the new Microsoft is improving Win10 each and every day. (I used Macs exclusively between 1986 and 2015. I now have one 3 year old iMac about to be replaced with maybe a Mac, maybe not. Now we have 3 new Win10 PCs in the house for the less than one 15 inch MacBook. $800 less. See the problem yet?)
3. If you follow the tech press you’re hearing the iAdoration die. People who happily ran Mac blogs for YEARS are starting to realize they’re getting had. Tim Cook is a huckster. Understand I’m not saying Apple has to be the very bestest computer company. Or the cheapest. It’s not the least bit competitive is what I’m telling you. And I’m not the only one saying this. When enough people like me say ‘procreate Apple’ then Apple isn’t Apple any longer.
4. It is my belief that Android OS is going to bury Apple first and Microsoft second. A year ago I’d never make such a claim. It’s going to happen because Android is willing to do two things Apple and MS won’t. It offers reasonable priced options (the way Apple doesn’t and never will) and offers reasonably secure computing (the way MS doesn’t).
You know you may be on to something. I have also seen the Samsung catching on fire in the public too.
Bud you are Apple and Samsung are like Ford and Chevy truck. Both are good products and both have loyal bases. They will ebb and flow over time but both will remain a solid part of the market for a time to come.
I hope he does something about the manipulation of the yen. He is putting a lot of effort towards Mexico when he should really be going after the Japanese. He also should push for the Germans and Japanese to further open up their markets or return the favor and close our market to their companies.
I am not a trump fan, but I do hope his actions force the foreign automakers to start playing fair.
Instead of analyzing this and trying to come up with some deep understanding and being some kind of voodoo guy I’m just going to say I hope everything works out and I cannot wait to see what President Trump’s ideas look like in practice. Good luck to all of the American manufacturers and good luck to President Trump.
I seem to recall that there were some “issues” with the Big 3’s manufacturing operations in the U.S. and they discovered they could not be competitive in the World market. The problem with Trump’s attempt to use carrots and sticks rather rapidly to try and accomplish the “trickle down” positive impact on the economy through building new plants and increasing manufacturing is that in 4 years (or perhaps 8) a new administration may come along and say “Gee, we ARE putting back those EPA regulations; we ARE going back to CAFE standards and we taking away the tax incentives and import tariffs” all of which are being used to cajole/jawbone/browbeat and encourage the 5 and 10 year planning for capital investment. Trump really has no fundamental clue about the length, depth and width of issues that he attempts to so grossly simplify.. but it makes great press.
Larry all the players know these changes are not permanent and the automaker will continue to work on better MPG. They just need more time to accomplish it as the EV is the key and the growth of the EV market is slow.
The 2025 regulations is not going to be met and they all know it. So they can back it off for a while and buy more time for the technology to grow and new segments to get stronger.
Right now the only way to meet it is to make cars smaller and smaller and engine even smaller Or pay more penalties where no one wins.
The Automakers will still have to work to meet the regulations globally that are still tough as well as California and the states that have adopted their regulations.
This is mostly about balance where the environmental needs are improved with out doing more damage to the MFGs by giving them limits that just can’t be met. At least not yet.
You have to remember while some like to paint cooperation’s as evil well most are not. Same with Eviro people most are reasonable but both have their extremes.
In the case of many environmental people they a do not care what happens to our economy or they are just using talking points that they were given because they have no active understanding on how the economy works.
These bomb throwers like to say extreme things like we are killing children but fail to understand if we go under economically we will lose more children to many more pressing issues like lack of food and care because we could not afford it even if the government were to provide it.
Like it or not both sides need each other and working together they can benefit both sides and keep us as stronger and cleaner nation.