Detroit Free Press - Mark Reuss, General Motors’ North American president, today gave a glimpse into how the Japanese earthquake and nuclear crisis is changing the planning inside Detroit automakers.
Some of the most high-tech automotive components come from Japan, Reuss told students at the University of Detroit Mercy, including some in the Chevrolet Volt’s electric drive unit. So while automakers such as GM are still waiting to hear the full extent of the damage in Japan, they’re already creating contingency plans. Of particular concern is the possibility that Japan would put a hold on its shipping ports due to high levels of radiation from affected nuclear reactors, Reuss said.
“I think the whole world changed,” he said, calling the Japanese earthquake “the event of a lifetime.”
“The industry doesn’t know what’s going to happen next when you have a massive supply disruption like that out of Japan,” he said.
Reuss brought up his concerns about Japan after a question about GM’s previously announced plans to hire 1,000 electric vehicle engineers and researchers in Michigan over the next two years. He said GM’s hiring plan was in place today, but he declined to comment on whether GM might change that plan in the future.
“I don’t have an assessment on that,” he said. “It’s about the future … That’s what we’ve got to go take a look at.”
The constant change and confusion in Japan makes contingency planning more difficult, Reuss said.
“It’s hard to pinpoint what’s coming out of there from a media and news standpoint,” he said. “When you have an event like this and you have this many days afterward where it’s still very hard to get that assessment on it, you can look at this in a completely different way.”
Compared with the crisis in Japan, the turmoil in oil-rich Libya is “almost episodic,” Reuss said.
Still, the restuctured auto industry is better prepared to handle a disruption in Japan than it was a few years ago because of improved liquidity and agility, Reuss said.
