Last night Jeremie, Eric and I saw “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. It was avery interesting film and if it comes to your area, you should go see it. Check out http://www.pluginamerica.com for more information about plug-in hybrids.
It makes me really sad to see such short-sighted business thinking on the part of the American car companies and I wonder how the engineers feel, changing the packaging but basically keeping up with the status quo. Being from Michigan, it’s hard not to feel profoundly sad and angry that instead of embracing innovation and creating jobs and long-term possiblities, the US car companies chose technological stagnation, job loss and cars that use a lot of gas. The car companies should be in the business of selling cars, any type of cars necessary to compete in the marketplace long-term. If they’d get out of bed with the oil companies maybe they could brush their teeth, look in the mirror and find their way to a future that’s good for business and the people.
The movie doesn’t go in to this, but I think we should take a long hard look at the relationship between technological innovation , the stock market and executive compensation.