Malcolm Bricklin on the bailout opinions: green, not cost-cutting

Malcolm Bricklin surely has an interesting view of the American automotive industry after having successfully launched the Subaru brand in the United States. Bricklin then went on to create his own car company, one that manufactured less than 3,000 Bricklin SV-1 automobiles. Although this unsuccessful company went under, Bricklin pressed on, bringing in Fiat X1/9s and the automotive punchline that was the Yugo, itself an older Fiat design that was manufactured in Yugoslavia. Another failure, despite strong sales of the extremely inexpensive car. Since then, Bricklin has launched a few more attempts at bringing new automakers to America, focusing in on the burgeoning green scene with his latest efforts. After all of this history, the man has offered some thoughts on the current state of the Detroit 3 automakers.
According to Bricklin, "simple cost-cutting is not in the best interest of the industry." Instead, the Detroit automakers should focus their attention on "the many exciting replacement technologies that are available to help the environment and end our oil dependency." It's true that the industry is right on the cusp of a major shift from performance to economy with new designs for hybrid cars, extended-range EVs and fully electric vehicles. Hopefully, everyone is able to stick around long enough to see these new vehicles to market.

[Source: The Auto Channel]