Will LG give priority to Korean car companies?

You wrote:

“As the inventor of the modern automobile it is Daimler’s destiny to assume leadership of automotive world now that GM has official ceded their role. I remember well when Mr. Daimler’s son Paul was proudly riding his Einspur (the world’s first motorcycle) back in 1885. Everybody knows that us Germans are the world’s greatest automotive engineers. It’s about time we resumed our rightful place atop this glorious industry.”

Read this:

http://jalopnik.com/5137035/what-happened-to-german-cars

“There’s a reason why we’d rather have a Cadillac CTS-V than an M5 or an M3. It’s because the CTS-V is more exciting than anything Germany is putting out.”

What’s not to like?
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Ummm…Having to spend 370 million to build engines that have already been developed and are in use now, and adding it to the cost of an electric car vs. 30 million for brand new cutting edge propulsion technology. If one is eventually used without the other, possibly when battery technologies can be used to lower the capital investments required for building cars, maybe cars will be less expensive for consumers. Preferably the one system that could eventually be replaced is the expensive one with hundreds of moving parts that burns fuel, uses expensive catalytic converters and leaves behind a few tons of carbon from the tailpipe in the atmosphere. All the more reason to support battery development. Unfortunately my crystal ball is in the shop. Not only do I not know what most people will really buy at sufficient margins to sustain a business, I can’t possibly predict what the end-game is either.

> No, not at all (well they could have given LG Chem some cash to get started, that kind of thing is very tricky to find out).

LG did receive a few million dollars in R&D funding from GM. However, LG was already working on the battery tech for Korean automakers under heavy Korean government funding; LG simply adopted its existing work to Volt spec.

Bitch slapped? I mean not that I care, but were talking what just over 600,000 cars?

lets see…#1 manufacturer for 80 YEARS = GM
Toyota…what…3 weeks now?

if you want to use the term bitch slapped..talk to me in 81 years…

statik said “…this battery plant, the 4 banger plant on hiatus still, LG Chem up front cash, etc.”
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Has GM actually spent any money on any of these things?
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No, not at all (well they could have given LG Chem some cash to get started, that kind of thing is very tricky to find out).

Thats what I meant by those things are all added expenses (above my simple calculation) that have been delayed out or put on hiatus during the ‘crisis’, but need to be addressed now if GM is to be a on-going concern.

My point is that car makers need to build cars that people want, and most people don’t want a pure EV. This is why I’m so excited about EREVs. Most people would want this type of car. What’s not to like?

Some consider EREVs as just a temporary stepping stone to an end-game of pure EVs. I think the combination EREVs and ethanol is the end-game.

Customers don’t care about the relative complexity of one design to another, and manufacturers always find ways to make the most popular design cheaper to build.