It’s almost fitting that a most unlikely winner of the first two Cup races of 2009 has kicked off what many expected would be a most unlikely season by NASCAR standards.When General Motors and Chrysler asked Washington for more money last week they took very different approaches. In exchange for an extra $17 billion from taxpayers — on top of the $13 billion it had gotten since December — G.M. said it would reduce costs by shuttering plants, cutting brands and slashing 47,000 jobs, about a fifth of its remaining work force.
For its $5.3 billion — on top of the $4.3 billion it has received since December — Chrysler offered little more than an assurance that it has already cut costs and accomplished most of what it had to do to become a valuable, viable company. It offered to trim production by a paltry 100,000 units — leaving it with capacity to make almost one million vehicles more than it will sell this year — on the questionable assumption that demand, and its market share, will bounce back next year… More info…Â
With the increasing popularity of the electrically assisted pushbike we are starting to see some innovative designs hit the market. While hub motors are the number one solution for mounting the electric motor within a bike frame, either in the front or rear wheel, mounting the battery pack and motor drive electronics has remained a challenge when taking into consideration practically and aesthetics. The folks at Electric Motion Systems think they have the answer with a combination of a 750 watt rear wheel mounted hub motor with built-in motor drive electronics paired with a battery pack mounted in the front wheel hub…Â