Just 3 days ago, President Donald Trump chastised General Motors on Twitter for not doing anything.
"GM always fails to do anything." He said GM had previously promised to produce 40,000 respirators right away, only to change its story to 6,000 units only by the end of April, and was rambling about the price. And he criticized GM CEO Mary Borah by name for "always making a mess of things."
Then followed it up with another tweet @ GM and Ford ordering GM to hurry up and start producing the ventilator right away. And added six exclamation points each after and "immediately" and "quickly."
While the global auto industry had not yet digested Mr. President's true nature, and some media even wrote articles saying that "the relationship between GM and the White House is once again strained," Trump changed his tune 2 days later, and praised GM in two consecutive appearances on March 29th.
"GM did a great job, we don't need to worry about GM anymore."
"They seem to be working really, really hard, and I think we'll get good news from GM."
Trump only launched the Defense Production Act (DPA) on March 27, clearing legal hurdles for car companies to switch to respirator production. Then before that he was criticized for failing to help companies speed up the switch to medical devices. U.S. media believe that Trump criticized GM at the time in order to dump on GM, which he said was the one wasting its time on negotiating terms. And earlier the same day, GM said it could start producing respirators immediately.
On March 29, GM released photos of its Indian plant producing respirators. Gerald?Johnson, GM's head of North American production, said the plan is to produce 10,000 ventilators a month by the summer.
"We expect to be up and running with respirators by mid-April." Johnson said GM is already working with ventilator company Ventec?Life?Systems, and the ventilators still need to receive U.S. regulatory approval, undergo extensive testing and be assembled by more than 1,000 workers who must be trained.
A GM spokesman said the company makes the ventilators "at cost" and does not make a profit. Assembly costs are in the tens of millions of dollars, and when suppliers' assembly costs are taken into account, the total cost is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other U.S. car companies are also struggling to produce respirators, masks and other medical equipment. Ford said March 27 that it is producing respirators as quickly as possible. Toyota is working with "at least two companies that make respirators and masks to help them increase productivity."
GM will also begin production of surgical masks at its Michigan plant, where it expects to produce 50,000 a day by mid-April.
This article comes from the authors of the Motorhome Car Family, and does not represent the views of Motorhome's position.