Auto Show Highlights Industry’s Future - and Michigan’s

By Sen. Carl Levin
Friday, January 22, 2010

One of the highlights of each year for me and thousands of Michiganders is a trip to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It’s always exciting to see the innovative concept cars and this year’s new models. But this year, my visit was especially memorable because of the domestic auto industry’s tough recent past, and the strong reasons for optimism about its future.

It is daunting to think of what our domestic auto industry must do in the coming months and years to succeed, but not nearly so daunting as the picture a year ago, when the very existence of General Motors and Chrysler, two titans of American manufacturing might, was in doubt.

Each has been through an extremely painful restructuring; thousands of our fellow Michiganders have lost their jobs. But through enormous sacrifice by GM and Chrysler workers, hard work by company executives, and the determination of the Obama administration, the companies survived. I and other members of Congress fought hard to secure their future and to assure that the pain, though severe, was minimized.

Since the bankruptcy filings by GM and Chrysler, we have seen good signs for their future, as well as Ford’s. Last summer, Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Detroit to announce $1.3 billion in grants for Michigan companies to develop advanced batteries and other electrical components, the electric hearts of a new generation of vehicles. At a Michigan plant, GM has begun production of battery packs for its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, a vehicle with the potential to change the auto industry. GM and Chrysler are making solid progress in returning the investments the government has made in them. And in November, Ford reported a quarterly profit of nearly $1 billion, strong evidence that its restructuring is working.

These are all reasons to feel optimistic about the domestic automakers’ future. And there were plenty more reasons on display at the auto show. There was Chevy’s Aveo RS, a close cousin of the small car GM will soon build at its Orion Township plant in Oakland County. There was Ford’s new Focus, an important update to an already successful model. And there was the Fiat 500, a small car that has impressed customers in much of the rest of the world, which Chrysler and its alliance partner Fiat will begin making in the United States soon.

I was excited by what I saw. And apparently I wasn’t alone. Show organizers said that attendance was significantly higher this year than last. That’s important not just because it might signal that more consumers are thinking again about a new car purchase. It’s important because it shows that Michiganders are feeling great excitement about this industry, which has been so important to us for so long.

We should not sugarcoat the difficulties we’ve been through, or those that remain. Ford, GM and Chrysler have much to do to ensure that their restructuring plans succeed. The sluggish economic recovery and the difficulty consumers have in getting car loans are major challenges. But we also should feel that all this hard work and tremendous sacrifice will bring a brighter future. It’s time to be optimistic again about the prospects for our domestic auto industry, and about what those prospects mean for Michigan and for America.