GM and Ford's Wet Electric Dream

Standing on the edge of the abyss ought to lead to a certain heightened clarity of action, but G.M and Chrysler remain stuck in fantasy mode, offering us the electric car as solution to their (and our) current woes.

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, kept in business by $17.4 billion in emergency loans, are showing off electric vehicles at the Detroit auto show that stretch the limits of current technology.

(Bloomberg)

While such technological ambitions are worthy, given the right time and place and conditions, we nevertheless remain in doubt as to their optimistic assumption that Americans will suddenly flock to these vehicles. Perhaps they might, but this display of engineering plumage does nothing but obscure the immediate problems of cost, compensation, and size. What the companies seem to be doing is the tossing of playthings into our collective crib, hoping we don't notice that mom and dad have no food for us, and are crack parents.

Honda also displays their skepticism:

"...the world leader in today’s hybrid- powered vehicles, Toyota, has said it’s not sure how many consumers in the U.S. would actually buy a pure electric car. Its plans for electric vehicles are much more modest than GM’s or Chrysler’s."

Some modesty on the part of American automakers is in order.