BYD As Auto "Manufacturer"

Amidst the hue and cry over whether and how GM, Chrysler and, in time, Ford might survive and perhaps even prosper again, a mention was made in a recent Wall Street Journal article of battery manufacturer BYD.

This Chinese firm specializes in lithium ion batteries, but is showing its plug-in hybrid at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show.

What I find remarkable is the implication for the three remaining US auto makers which is going largely unheralded.

Part of the recent and, so they hope, upcoming bailout of GM and Chrysler by the US Treasury is an expectation that the companies' new minority partners, Uncle Sam, will mandate 'green' car technology- hybrids, electric cars, and that sort of thing.

But it would seem to be a troubling omen that a Chinese battery-maker is already showing a complete and functioning electric hybrid vehicle. Specifically, given that so much automotive technology is provided by suppliers to the 'manufacturers,' i.e., assemblers, even a simple batter maker can toss a hybrid car together.

This would seem to spell serious doom for the UAW and its employers in America. Not even having marketed production quantities of hybrids yet, these firms and the union depending on them will have to contend with a vehicle built by non-union Chinese workers. Something so simple, evidently, that it would presumably be tough for US auto makers to add sufficient value to make their cars more salable. Yet, the vehicle doesn't emanate from a vehicle manufacturer.

Does this not suggest that hybrids are going to be so easy to make that Detroit producers, with their high legacy costs and union employees, have basically zero chance of making the hoped-for bonanza on this type of vehicle?

So much for throwing tens of billions of taxpayer money into GM and Chrysler so they can make it all back, and then some, with so-called world beating hybrids and other non-gasoline cars and trucks. It's looking like they'll once more be late to market and competing with much more nimble, imaginative and dangerous competitors.