What If We Didn't Bail Out the Automakers?

I was reading this morning about the pleas from Ford, Chrysler, and GM to be the latest recipients of a couple billion dollars of government largesse...

...and remembering the time in 2004 that I visited GM's R&D headquarters and listened to their execs diss the potential of hybrid technology. From the piece:

"You always have your early adopters," said Alan Taub, GM's executive director for R&D, about today's hybrid buyers. "Toyota sells as many Priuses as we sell Pontiac Aztecs. Is that a success?" Earlier this year, at the Detroit International Auto Show, Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman of product development, had said that the company's decision not to make a hybrid car "was a mistake from one aspect, and that's public relations and catering to the environmental movement."

Now, Toyota alone has sold more than one million hybrids, and our indigenous car-makers want a taxpayer hand-out.

I know it'd cause major pain in Michigan (and beyond) if one, two, or three of these companies went under.

But could it also give rise to new kinds of car-makers and parts-makers? If GM went bankrupt, would some private equity firms buy the Chevy Volt project, keep it alive, and do a better job of bringing it to market than GM? Would other manufacturing companies spring up in old Ford plants, hiring former Ford workers? Would more companies like Tesla Motors spring up, and take advantage of some of that existing infrastructure and worker expertise?

I tend to think they would.

But maybe that's because I was at the Bedford, MA headquarters of ZINK yesterday morning.

This is a company that bought all of its intellectual property from Polaroid (and then continued to develop it). Zink bought most of its prototyping and manufacturing equipment from Polaroid (for 50 cents on the dollar). They bought an old Konica-Minolta plant in North Carolina to make their product. (ZINK designs ink-less mobile printers, and they produce the paper used in those printers.) The bulk of their employees once worked at Polaroid.

Would ZINK have ever happened if the government had bailed out Polaroid and kept it on life-support?

'Shocks and awe': Bose's new auto suspension system

I wrote about Bose's secret project to reinvent automobile suspension systems back in June of 2004. Three and a half years later, my Globe colleague Jeff Krasner reports, Bose is still not willing to let journalists drive the demo car outfitted with the heavenly shocks...and Bose still hasn't landed an automaker partner to put the shocks into actual cars.

I guess that if I were to look on the bright side, I'd say that it's a nice thing that 78-year old Amar Bose, the company's founder, still believes in long-range R&D.

A bit from Krasner's piece:

Bose said a high-end Cadillac would be an ideal platform for his system, and acknowledges that General Motors gave Bose Corp. a big boost when it became the first car company to install its sound system (in a Cadillac) in 1981. But though the suspension system was a success when it was demonstrated to General Motors, he said, talks haven't progressed.

"When we get ready, we'll give them an opportunity," he said.

Another possibility, according to analysts, is Audi, the luxury arm of Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest automaker. Audi offers Bose sound systems on its models, and its large A8 luxury sedan has a reputation for employing advanced technology - it has an aluminum frame, unique among large cars.

"We've shown the system to all of the major manufacturers and Audi has not expressed much interest at this point," said Bose.