> Startup idea wouldn't really work, it costs way too much money to bring a car to market, and there aren't that many startups in the automotive space, Tesla is pretty much it.
I think that I you set up a incubator with $200mln for pre-seed VC, with a priority for potentially labor-intensive and/or automotive businesses, you'd see some significant job creation. Not enough to offset GM layoff overnight, but at least the solutions provided will be sustainable.
it costs close to 1 billion dollars to setup a factory to produce a single model. The only reason Tesla is able to do it for a 1/4th of that is because they aren't doing mass production, and their vehicles are using Lotus Elise parts. So the 200 mil will be a drop in the bucket in the auto space.
And even if they did that, the job creation will do no good to the typical worker whose family worked on the same assembly line for 3 generations. Granted some of the jobs will be back when Toyota or Honda or some other successful car company buys GM's assets. But GM is one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, and right now there isn't really that much demand for new cars. I read that last month Honda(whose stuff pretty much flies off the shelf) sold 25% less cars than the year before.
I'm not saying they would be mass-producing cars. I'm saying, creative innovative people will think of something nice to do with 200 mln and 200.000 good pairs of hands.
I think that I you set up a incubator with $200mln for pre-seed VC, with a priority for potentially labor-intensive and/or automotive businesses, you'd see some significant job creation. Not enough to offset GM layoff overnight, but at least the solutions provided will be sustainable.