US Automakers Want Up to $34 Billion in Aid

The three big US auto makers submitted requests to Congress for what could amount to $34 billion of dollars in federal assistance to save the struggling industry from collapse.

General Motors said it needed $12 billion in loans and another $6 billion in credit in order to survive.

Ford Motor asked for a $9 billion "stand-by line of credit" to stabilize its business, but said it doesn't expect to need the money.

Privately held Chrysler requested a bridge loan of $7 billion by the end of December, saying its cash could fall below the minimum required by then.

Detroit's auto makers are making a second bid for federal funding by submitting plans to restructure their ailing companies and provide assurances that the funding will help them survive and thrive.

In congressional hearings last month, auto executives were roundly criticized for not coming prepared to justify their pleas for federal aid. They were told to go back home and ready a new plan that had to be submitted by Tuesday.

The auto CEOs will appear again before Congress this Thursday and Friday.

GM said it needs $4 billion in financing this month in order to avoid failure. (Read GM's plan outline here)

"The first $4 billion is crucial,'' GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said, adding, "There is no Plan B.''

GM's plan also called for:

• Increased production of fuel-efficient vehicles and energy-saving technologies;
• Rationalization of brands, models and retail outlets;
• Reduced wage and benefit costs, including further reductions in executive compensation;
• Significant capital structure restructuring;
• Further consolidation in manufacturing operations.

Ford, meanwhile, said that unless one of Detroit's other auto companies goes bust, it expects to have enough money to make it through next year without government help. Ford's restructuring plan projected the firm will break even or turn a pretax profit in 2011.

The Big Three executives also are offering a series of mostly symbolic moves to burnish their images, badly tattered after they arrived in Washington D.C. last month on three separate private jets to plead for a federal lifeline for their struggling companies.

This week, the automakers are going out of their way to show deference to lawmakers and a willingness to flog themselves for past mistakes.

"I think we learned a lot from that experience," Ford CEO Alan Mulally told The Associated Press in an interview. Mulally said he'd work for $1 per year if his firm had to take any government loan money. Chrysler said Nardelli would work for a $1 salary as well.

Ford's plan also says it will cancel all management employees' 2009 bonuses, scrap merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year, and sell its five corporate aircraft.

And for this week's appearances here, all three company chiefs will skip the lavish travel arrangements.

Mulally is coming by car from Detroit for this week's second round of congressional hearings on government help for the Big Three. GM Chief Rick Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek from Detroit to Capitol Hill, spokesman Tony Cervone said Tuesday. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli will travel to the nation's capital in a hybrid as well.

The unions were preparing to make sacrifices as well.

United Auto Workers leaders summoned local union leaders from across the country to an emergency meeting Wednesday in Detroit to discuss concessions the union could make to help auto companies get government loans.

Video: Ford CEO Mulally interviewed on CNBC.

U.S. automakers are struggling to stay afloat heading into 2009 under the weight of an economic meltdown, the worst auto sales in decades and a tight credit market.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler went through nearly $18 billion in cash reserves during the last quarter, and GM and Chrysler have said they could collapse in weeks.

Meanwhile, the auto companies released new sales numbers that underlined the punishing business environment facing the Big Three.

Ford said its November U.S. light vehicle sales tumbled 31 percent amid a continued slump in consumer spending and tight credit markets.

Sales at Toyota, Japan's No. 1 automaker, fell 34 percent despite its extension of zero-percent financing on a dozen vehicles.

Ford's blueprint said it would invest $14 billion over the next seven years to boost its vehicles' fuel-efficiency, and improve the overall efficiency of its fleet by an average of 14 percent next year.

And Ford is calling for a new partnership among automakers, parts suppliers and the government to develop new battery technologies domestically, so the U.S. doesn't have to rely on foreign batteries—as it now does on foreign oil—to power its cars.

Chrysler is expected to outline changes that would include a swap of debt in the company for equity stakes and reductions in some vehicle models, according to a person who was briefed on the plan.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.

GM, according to its quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, owes creditors $45 billion and it must pay more than $7.5 billion early in 2010 to a UAW-administered trust fund that will take over retiree health care payments.

Ford owes more than $26 billion, with $6.3 billion due to its UAW trust fund at the end of 2009.

Chrysler, a private company, does not have to open its books, but its CEO, Nardelli, has said it would be difficult for the company to make it without federal aid.

All three likely are negotiating with the UAW for delays in payments to the trusts.

The companies are resisting calls for bankruptcy, arguing that no one would buy a car from an automaker that may not survive the life of the vehicle.

- Reuters and AP contributed to this report.

© 2008 CNBC.com