DETROIT – Forty-four billion dollars. That’s what GM’s request for government aid is up to right now, when you count money it wants to get from governments in North America and Europe. The Wall Street Journal reports GM is also looking to sell off 25 to 50 percent of Opel, which could legally separate it from GM. The German government is reluctant to loan GM money, but is under pressure from labor unions to save jobs.
Ward’s reports the production capacity in North America for the Big Three could drop below 50 percent this year. And other manufacturers in North America are only expected to hit 55 percent capacity. That is an alarming number. A general rule of thumb in the industry is that automakers need to hit 80 percent of capacity utilization just to break even. Ward’s also forecasts that even by 2012 the Big Three will only hit 75 percent capacity utilization.
A year or two ago Ford announced that it was going bring some of its European products to North America to help it create a more globally-consistent product lineup. Now Autoblog reports that company�??s plant in Louisville will build the Kuga crossover, it was initially expected to get the next-generation Focus. This is good news for the 3,000 or so folks down in Kentucky who currently assemble the slow-selling Explorer.
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