America's auto woes will usher in clean cars

It seems that the euphoria of Barack Obama’s election as the first black President of the United States of America have started to subside and the reality of America’s economic problems have began to pinch hard on ordinary Americans. On top of the list of America’s problems is General Motors (GM), which was once the biggest automaker in the world, until it was overtaken or dislodged by Toyota Motors. GM now claims that it is running out of cash and is seeking financial assistance from the US government.

How times have indeed changed. Gone are the days when GM used to boast that “General Motors is America and America is General Motors.” In the early 90s, Transfarm & Co. signed a memorandum of agreement with GM. We were invited to meet with their executives hand-ling the Asia Pacific sector at the GM headquarters at the Fisher Bldg. in Detroit, Michigan. It was an old 1930s building with elevators so huge; you could literally drive a Cadillac inside them.

GM showed us their research facility in Troy, Michigan, which was a one-square mile facility that showed us the future of GM’s cars. It was there that I first saw GM’s electric car. This car was the EV-1 which went into production for about a year, but GM pulled it out because of poor sales as gasoline prices were still very inexpensive. GM lost a golden opportunity to help America from its dependence on Arab oil. They had the right car at the wrong time! Time is exactly what GM wants, otherwise they might end up with the other motoring greats like Packard, American Motors or Studebaker.

For this year, GM, Ford and Chrysler experienced record losses because they are selling the same old cars that nobody wants to buy. So the race for an electric or hydrogen powered vehicle is on. GM Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz intends to have the Chevy Volt on the showrooms by the year 2010. What will GM sell next year? The same old 2008 models that no one is buying? GM is short on cash and scared that it may have to lay off hundreds if not thousands of its autoworkers.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner openly admitted that killing the EV-1 was a bad mistake and they intend to fix this with the new Chevy Volt. Because of the recession the world gasoline prices has plummeted to record lows, despite the Oil Producing & Exporting Countries (OPEC) efforts to cut production by a million barrels per day. Already talk is ripe about a merger between GM and Chrysler, which if it materializes will leave America with only two auto manufacturers, Ford and GM.

Perhaps the only positive side to Barack Obama’s election is his commitment to ensure Americans that they will no longer be dependent on Arab oil during his term. This means, under the Obama Presidency, he will be fully supportive of US Auto industry so they can retool their manufacturing capabilities to build fuel efficient or even better, electric vehicles for the world markets. This alone promises a better future for America. If the rest of the automotive world follows (Honda already has a commercial hydrogen car sold to celebrities), then we can look forward to a cleaner environment with these new breed of cars.

We hope that GM can meet its 2010 target to bring the electric car to the world’s showrooms. When this happens, you can bet that the car you are driving today will suddenly feel like it came from the Jurassic age. But the plus factors are unquantifiable, no more polluting cars, no more dependence on Arab oil therefore, the world would no longer be under the stranglehold grip of OPEC. The future doesn’t look bad after all!

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When I got my invitation from the Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa dubbed “When the Toque meets the Pen” I knew we were in for another unique gastronomic treat. That’s exactly what our media friends, Spanish Honorary Consul Jaime Picornell, Dr. Nestor Alonso, Nelia Neri, Mila Espina, Honey Loop, Cookie Newman, Mayen Tan, Chinggay Utzurrum and this writer with my wife Jessica experienced at the Shang.

We began in Acqua for some Pan Fried Foie Gras with red pears then moved on to the Tea of Spring for a Double boiled abalone soup with Sa Sam and Yoke Chuk then on to Cowrie Cove for the Wok-fried Jumbo king prawn with salted egg yolk granule, all under a full moon. It was the Shang GM Raymond Bragg, Food & Beverage Chef Darren Conole, Executive Chef Emmanuel Guenon and Paul Chia, the Cowrie Cove’s Chef de Cuisine way of showing us the Shang’s culinary mastery in the best food Cebu can offer.