{"id":35698,"date":"2011-01-27T17:14:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T22:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=35698"},"modified":"2011-01-27T17:14:44","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T22:14:44","slug":"gm-withdraws-request-for-14-billion-in-u-s-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2011\/01\/gm-withdraws-request-for-14-billion-in-u-s-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Withdraws Request for $14 Billion in U.S. Loans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GM is in much better shape, says design chief Welburn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

General Motors has withdrawn a request for $14.4 billion in low-interest loans it was seeking through the Department of Energy, proclaiming it has enough cash to fund the development of battery cars and other high-mileage models.<\/p>\n

The news came on the same day the maker said it will speed up the roll-out of its highly-touted Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.\u00a0 The original plan called for GM to provide about 10,000 Volts \u2013 recently voted North American Car of the Year \u2013 to dealers in select markets this year, then expand nationwide in 2012.\u00a0 GM is now looking to boost production to 25,000 or more in 2011 and to get some of the battery-based vehicles to all its dealers before year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe Now - It's Free!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re confident of our progress and the strong global performance of our company,\u201d GM\u2019s global design director Ed Welburn said during an appearance at the Washington Auto Show.<\/p>\n

The decision to withdraw the loan request reflects both the improved cash position of the company \u2013 which is expected to report another substantial profit in the coming weeks \u2013 and the insistence of senior managers, including CEO Dan Akerson and CFO Chris Liddell, to minimize corporate debt.<\/p>\n

The maker is also anxious to shed the unwanted moniker, \u201cGovernment Motors,\u201d which it got following its 2009 bankruptcy and the subsequent $50 billion federal bailout.\u00a0 GM paid off its remaining government loan last year, while moving ahead on the process of selling off the Treasury\u2019s equity stake.\u00a0 The maker\u2019s November 2010 IPO raised a record $23.1 billion, the vast majority of that going to the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

The loan application was designed to help GM fund the costly process of developing more fuel-efficient vehicles.\u00a0 The nation\u2019s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard will jump from 27.5 mpg to 35.1 mpg by 2016, and government regulators are considering further increases, to as much as 62 miles per gallon by 2025.\u00a0 A formal announcement of the planned revisions is expected by September 1.\u00a0 (For More, <\/em>Click Here<\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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In August 2008, GM initially asked for $10.8 billion, but the loan request was raised to $14.4 billion following the maker\u2019s emergence from Chapter 11 protection \u2013 a time when it was unclear it would have the money to move forward on critical product programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in a very different position today than we were then,\u201d declared Welburn, during his Washington appearance.<\/p>\n

While GM has decided to forego the government loan, cross-town rival Ford has won approval for $5.9 billion from the $25 billion DoE fund.\u00a0 Chrysler is still waiting for approval of its loan application.\u00a0 Other makers who have received funding are Japan\u2019s Nissan, and two California battery-car start-ups, Fisker Automotive an d Tesla Motors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

General Motors has withdrawn a request for $14.4 billion in federal low-interest loans it once needed to develop high-mileage vehicles – at the same time announcing plans to ramp up the rol-lout of the Chevy Volt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35698"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=35698"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=35698"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=35698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}