This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
4/11/2005
Hydrogen-Powered Cars
General Motors is banking on the future. Right now GM is reporting that it will lose $850 million in the first quarter. Personally that is the biggest first quarter loss that I have ever heard of. The reason they are losing is because of Japanese auto-makers and their R&D. The R&D cost are so high because of the hydrogen-powered cars that GM hopes will be demanded in the near future. I would like a hydrogen-powered car becuase I am sick of paying high gas prices. The demand of these cars will go up in the future, but is GM banking on that to soon?
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2 comments:
I think that's great that GM is willing to bank on something that could potentially leave everyone out there so much better off. The benefits to pulling this off is so far-reaching in so many areas. This is exciting to hear about a corporation with so much clout actually seriously attempting to develop this technology for the mainstream auto market.
-1 on Salty's post for a spelling error.
For a large company, a $50M in one quarter is not huge.
This is a very desperate gamble by GM. The only way that hydrogen is going to be economical in cars any time soon is if governments are heavily lobbied to tax gas out of the competition.
Hydrogen and hybrids are about shifting the source of pollution (at some expense) away from the end user of the transportation. There is a market for that kind of move, but it is being driven by clean air advocates in (say) Los Angeles. This is all about transferring Los Angeles' pollution to someplace where Angelenos don't live, like (say) Delta. GM is merely responding to the political winds.
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