I've had a lot of responses to my previous recommendations regarding how we should be thinking about Detroit.
There have been those who think electric cars will never work.
There are those who think electric cars are a good idea, but batteries aren't the right storage solution.
There are those who think that electric cars and batteries are reasonable solutions, but that we'll run out of lithium long before we run out of oil.
There are those who think hydrogen cars are the answer and there are those who think hydrogen cars are pure lunacy.
I will plan to discuss some of those comments a little later, but for today I encourage you to read Thomas Friedman's op-ed piece While Detroit Slept in today's (Dec 10th) New York Times.
He believes that investing in Detroit's current business model will be just like
"... pouring billions of dollars into improving typewriters on the eve of the birth of the PC and the Internet."
" ... pouring billions of dollars into the CD music business on the eve of the birth of the iPod and iTunes."
His conclusion -
"If we miss the chance to win the race for Car 2.0 because we keep mindlessly bailing out Car 1.0, there will be no one to blame more than Detroit’s new shareholders: we the taxpayers."
He also believes that Shai Agassi's company has the right business model.
"It is Shai Agassi’s electric car network company, called Better Place. Just last week, the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., announced a partnership with the state of Hawaii to road test its business plan there after already inking similar deals with Israel, Australia, the San Francisco Bay area and, yes, Denmark."
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