I never understood why a company would have to borrow money to pay workers or bills. If you grow so fast that you can't make your bills with your profits, maybe you need to scale back.
And the only reason why GM might make more fuel efficient cars than anyone else, is because they make so many damn differnet kinds of cars. They also probably the most ineffecient cars.
What kills me is from the 70s, after the big fuel shortage, until 1983 the fuel efficiency doubled. After that it stood still. In addition, the weight of cars increased about 1000 pounds and horsepower doubled as well, which added to inefficiency. Less than 1% of the energy in the tank actually moves the car. From 1985 until 2007 mileage standards remained unchanged but big truck and SUV sales almost doubled. Because these vehicles have lower standards than cars,
average fuel economy today is actually a bit less than it was 20 years ago, despite hard-won gains in engine efficiency.
I got all this information last night when I watched NOVA, Car of the Future. You can check it here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
They had previews of all kinds of future cars plus ones that are available now, like the Tesla. But the Tesla is expensive, it is comparable to other high end sports cars. It is fully electric though. It goes 250 miles on a single charge. And it is 85% efficient, as opposed to the 20% or less efficient combustion engine. Tesla is working on a more affordable family style car, but it will still be in a higher price range than a lot of people can afford, like a Lexus or BMW or Mercedes or something.
Maybe Congress should be giving money to people like that, to help bring down the prices so more people can afford them.
http://www.teslamotors.com/