Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama took time out from a NATO summit in Lisbon on Saturday to tout a new hybrid electric car which General Motors plans to roll out in Europe next year.Obama found himself acting as salesman-in-chief for GM Opel’s Ampera model just days after he declared in Washington that U.S. taxpayers would get their money back for saving GM in a bailout that was broadly unpopular.*
Calling the Ampera an “example of GM technology”, Obama said: “This is the future.”
“This is a car made in America,” he said after inspecting an Ampera at the convention centre where he was wrapping up a two-day NATO summit. “We’re going to start selling it in Europe.”
GM last week was refloated as a public company amid heavy investor demand, and the White House sought to take credit for what it saw as a successful turnaround.
Public anger over the bailout, along with rescue packages for Wall Street banks, contributed to heavy losses for Obama’s Democrats in the Nov. 2 congressional election.*
But the stock sale capped GM’s recovery from near-collapse, thanks to a $50 billion government rescue.*
1 comment:
Interesting. Rolling out a new hybrid electric in Europe first. So GM can see all the problems over there to work them out, before releasing it in the U.S.
Why not just release it here first?
Post a Comment