June 6, 2009

(From a senior level Chrysler person)

Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor at the Univ. of Michigan . You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately.

Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+ year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero engineering experience, tell them how to run their business.

Mr. Cole’s favorite story is as follows:

There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer, automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so we wouldn’t “need” so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU’s of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some website.

Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from…

The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) “These laws of physics? Who’s rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That’s why we are here, to fix these sort of issues”. 

Read at: http://www.chron.com/commons/forums.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a1b9731d0-7e1a-45be-9f26-ebb966eeaaa3Forum%3a4b9cfbff-d473-4a3a-8ec2-f98741cc7d21Discussion%3acbcb22d4-053a-44b4-a61d-33355d93e75a

7 Comments »

1. In 1994 I approved the conversion of all non-deployment tasked government vehicles (about 250) at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV., for conversion to LNG/Propane. The Air Force received financial credits for the energy saving conversion. The technology was not new and is not rocket science. Many of the Taxi companies in Las Vegas also made the conversion. Although you do need a second tank to store enough LNG to make a 500 mile trip, it is not that large or in convent especially for a large sedan, truck or SUV.

   Battery technology however is another mater. We simply are not there yet, and to get there, promoters of battery power like Tesla Motors would see the price of gas driven to $10 a gallon to pay for their research efforts. Additionally, no one is addressing the impact/stress of increased demand on our nations electrical grid, or what processes might be required to safely dispose of newer high tech batteries that use extremely hazardous materials to work.

   Bottom line, my wife wants/needs an SUV but wants to join with the ‘green’ movement so has been researching LNG conversions. Not one of the automakers have offered any information about LNG, even for fleet operations. There are no facilities in or near Las Vegas capable of doing the conversion. The nearest we could find was Winnipeg! Canada is littered with them. While the number of places were LNG can be obtained for a trip between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City have increased, finding or converting a vehicle to take advantage is near impossible.

   A high school physics class from inner city Philadelphia can build a combination electric/gas car based on a Ford Fusion chassis that gets 100 MPG.

   And what is our present administration of young genius’s doing about it? Repealing the laws of nature!

   Comment by John Frisby — June 20, 2009 @ 7:39 am

2. [...] Automotive Industry Challenge… David Cole | Lux Libertas – Light … By John Frisby June 6, 2009 (From a senior level Chrysler person) Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman, Lux Libertas – Light and Liberty – http://www.luxlibertas.com/ [...]

   Pingback by Car Dealers Bank « CarZonline Blog — June 20, 2009 @ 4:40 pm

3. If a long range electric/gas car is feasible then where is the conflict with the laws of nature?

   Comment by nsimpson — June 20, 2009 @ 10:28 pm

4. David Cole has refuted this anecdote himself, although there is a grain of truth in it.

   http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/physics.asp

   Comment by Watt D Fark — June 22, 2009 @ 8:10 am

5. nsimpson, the long range hybrid proposed in the story is readily feasible and hints that the story is fake. Moreover, reducing the number of “stations” (and why is this important?) is likely to come more through increased fuel (be it lng, gas, or whatever it is) efficiency (assuming that it results in decreased costs per mile) and not through increased range.

   Comment by JJ — July 15, 2009 @ 12:01 pm

6. The story is completely false, Dr. Cole himself refutes it:

   http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/physics.asp

   http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/obamas-auto-team-the-laws-of-physics/

   Here’s an article from someone who actually heard Dr. Cole speak. Dr. Cole actually believes the Obama White House is doing a better job at understanding the auto industry than previous administrations:

   http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/tag/dr-david-e-cole/

   So not only is the story false, it misrepresents what Dr. Cole really thinks!

   Comment by Peter Watson — November 22, 2009 @ 4:47 pm

7. The article was found in the Houston Chronical. It has been called to their attention and we are waiting a retraction or clarification. It should be noted that both snopes and factcheck have provided misleading responses to other such articles in the past. I attempted to contact Dr. Cole but did not recieve a reply.

   Comment by John Frisby — November 23, 2009 @ 6:31 am

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