GM is just getting out of the car business, and have been for years, they make their real money from financing, as soon as they realized that fact, they shifted focus to making good loans, not good cars. This quote only reaffirms that fact.

 They make more money loaning money to their employees and their family members, than they could ever possibly make selling cars. It's a shame they have no belief in hybrids, but also find it strange, as it seems they are actually trying to make some effort.

that the same people who make Hummers and gianormous GMCs would be afraid of the hyrbid.

Though I agree we need to curb the number of SUVs bought and driven in this country, I don't agree with your statement that GM is going out of business. In fact, their turn around has happened much faster than analysts predicted with their stock constantly on the rise since the beginning of 06. Though the quotes you used do seem brash, a reluctantly built hybrid is still one more hybrid on the road that can help stop global warming. That's more than you can say about Chrysler.

The problem is us, Americans. Not that nations exist any more than borders or religions do, but our national stories about ourselves are powerful and have strongly influenced the country's collective consciousness. "Americans" have unabashedly had an international "love affair with the car," the gas guzzler in particular. The ego identity of many, if not most, Americans is deeply connected to the car that is registered in his/her name, or at least the one he/she is perceived to own by his/her local modern tribe. Call it small spirit or big ego syndrome. For sure, Detroit has played its part. In the late 1990's, both Ford and GM willfully ignored global warnings about peak oil and climate change and made a deal with the proverbial devil; company executives chose to mass manufacture and mass market high profit margin, gas-guzzling SUVs to a national tribe of almost 300 million oil addicts. I encourage everyone to see the new documnentary WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR to help you understand just how deep this rabbit hole goes. Detroit, like Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Hollywood, and other American-born industries, have all seen their heyday. Corporate royalty know better than anyone that the American Economic Empire is waning, and these titans are extracting as much wealth as possible before moving on to pollute greener pastures. Both Ford and GM already make much, much more fuel efficient cars for other national tribes in fictional places like Europe because the collective ego their identifies more with efficiency. Thankfully, there are those lone voices in the wilderness, among them a handful of lesser known environment and social justic groups who have campaigned tirelessly to get American automakers to commit to an industrial recovery program. However, their best efforts, which have included repelling from skyscrapers and flying frightening factual banners over car dealers, have not resulted in much measurable improvement in what is rolling off of the assembly lines of either GM or Ford. In fact, to the contrary, their resistance may have indavertendly emboldened GM and Ford executives to keep putting the petal to the metal while hyping hydrogen, a technology that is decades away from mass production. Perhaps, as World Citizens, it is time for an acceptance movement in America. It is time to swallow our national pride and simply allow these automakers to go out business. Toyota and Honda are both building new plants across the country, and from what I understand, the Japanese are much better companies to work for anyway.

Did anyone read the article? Geez, you'd think I was looking at a left wing blog. It was Toyota that said and I quote from TFA: "Toyota has said, economically, hybrids make no sense. The reduction in fuel [consumption] does not pay for the technological content and cost of the vehicle so therefore economically it remains fairly nonsensical, so that’s the left-brain analytical argument."

Electrical Cars are not dead as well. take a look at www.teslamotors.com - I agree it's pricey, but the technology is there, and if not them, someone will make it affordable. The problem with bio fuel, is the cost of conversion for the intended impact. Not to mention pulling out all the gas tanks. There will be better alternatives come about. It's like saying I'd drive across town 45 miles to save 20 cents on a gallon of milk. Do the math. At 20mpg, and at todays cost of $3/gallon. That's $6 in gas to save 20 cents on a gallon of milk. The same analogy applies with bio-diesel.

For the person above: Detroit is dead. Man, quit smoking stuff and go live in another country if us 'Americans' are so bad. A few weeks in a 3rd world country, faltered by a [EXPLETIVE DELETED] government will make you sit back and count your blessings here at home. And for all that have not educated themselves. Global Warming has not scientifically been proven, and how vain to think that as humans we are capable of chaning the structure of this planet. If we were that good at it, don't you think we could change weather patterns?

On many occassions, including in The New York Times, Toyota executives have made public commitments to increase mass production of hybrids. Hopefully, plug-in hybrids are coming soon. Regarding Tesla Motors, kudos to them, but for America to stop creating one quarter of the world's greenhouse gasses, we need mass production of plug-in, alt-fuel vehicles post haste. Regarding time in a "third world country," I have spent years living and working in them, and it is we "first worlders" who should be humble enough to sit at the feet of their last remaining indigenous elders and learn a thing or three about the Earth and our relationship to her. I am not smoking anything, and I count my blessings constantly. But these blessings should be shared with all people everywhere equally. Instead we are are the planet's primary polluters. Beyond what is coming out of our tailpipes and smokestacks, the USA regularly ship toxic trash to the "developing world." So, while we count our blessings, we must also be aware of the curse we have become to many of our fellow human beings. Regarding global warming, in the history of science, there has never been a greater consensus on anything than there is about the current climate crisis and its cause, carbon combustion. We have accelerated an ancient carbon cycle by radically extracting coal, oil and natural gas from deep within our crust and burning it faster than ecosystems can absorb it back. To compound matters, we are systematically degrading the very ecosystems that we need to make a full recovery. It is time for we humans to realize that we ARE capable of changing the very nature of reality here on Earth. From splitting atoms to splicing genes, we now have powers previously attributed to "the Gods." We must use them wisely, or the planet will purify itself of us. Thank you for the vigorous exchange of ideas.

I purchased a toyota hybrid a few weeks ago and I'm enjoying it tremendously. I traveled from Houston, TX to Miami, FL and the milege and the money I saved from driving my car was worth the price I paid. I traveled with a teenager and two preteens and the comfort and leg room was great. The way you save on energy from gas to battery was amazing. Hybrids all the way!! sumitted by: Vickie G., July 31, 2006, 4:51p.m.

The headline and article comments for this thread is misleading and no one wants to acknowledge that. And only a small kudos for tesla motors. Don't quote the New York Times for anything, they are anti-American. Talk to China about emmissions, understand the ramifications of the Kyoto Agreement. Then we can talk about sharing the burden equally. I want to breathe cleaner air like everyone, and stop pillaging the earth as much as possible. But I'm also a realist, and in no way endorse hugging a tree for the trees sake. I know that goes against the why can't we all get along mentality here at Lime. I very rarely post anything online, I stay away from political blogs and the like for the exact same reason as the flaming I'm getting on this. Stuff gets spewed as fact and facts are twisted to meet the writers own agendas. If you want an honest debate on this topic, I am more than happy to share my enlightened view, but the headline needs to be corrected and the initial commentary needs to be trutful and accurate on this one before I would continue.