It has been focusing on larger and larger trucks and SUVs—apparently unaware that gas prices were likely to go up. Did a spike in gas prices surprise anybody? Or, rather, anybody who doesn’t live in Detroit? The Prius has been selling incredibly well. It’s not a particularly new car. But it still has no American competition. Apparently, somebody in Detroit looked at the huge profit margins from huge cars and decided that they should focus exclusively on the gas guzzlers.
Clearly, this is a systemic problem in Detroit. A bailout, even with terms, is likely to just fund them to effectively continue on the same path. They might need to fail.
I direct attention here. Whatever the incoming administration does with Detroit, it needs to make sure those actions don’t run counter to its environmental agendas. There aren’t nearly enough environmentalists working in Detroit, and that’s where a lot of the industry’s problems began.
