“I think G.M. is basically declaring the S.U.V. dead,” the New York Times quoted John Casesa, managing partner of the auto consulting firm Casesa Shapiro Group in New York. His quote is in response to G.M. ceasing production by 2010 at four North American assembly plants that make S.U.V.’s and pickups.
G.M. has long touted its Hummers and S.U.V.’s as macho nature conquering beasts (just look at the commercials where the S.U.V.’s are climbing mountains, subjugating rocky terrain and triumphing over river beds). And Americans ate it up, with G.M. S.U.V. sales topping out at 600,000 in 2002. Yet, the market has done something that Al Gore couldn’t: gotten people to abandon their gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s in an effort to save the planet or maybe just to save some cash. Regardless of the motive, there has been a shift in consciousness.
Unfortunately, the employees of the four G.M. production plants in Janesville, Wis.; Moraine, Ohio; Oshawa, Ontario; and Toluca, Mexico will be the ones to suffer most from G.M.’s decision. Certainly G.M. executives will be given cushy retirement packages and golden parachutes to ease their way out of the industry, if indeed they go anywhere, but those factory workers will undoubtedly be left with pink slips and panic.
It is unfortunate that while G.M. puts the final nail in the coffin of many of its S.U.V.’s, it cannot replace those lost jobs with increased production of smaller greener vehicles. Too bad G.M. killed its own electric vehicle, EV1, years ago
