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GM, Chrysler may need 'considerably' more aid

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-21 14:30

WASHINGTON -- General Motors and Chrysler could need "considerably" more aid than the US$21.6 billion in additional loans they have asked for, a top US Treasury official said Friday.

A visitor walks past the logo of US car maker Chrysler on a press day at the Geneva car show, on March 3, 2008 in Geneva. [Agencies]

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Steven Rattner, the lead advisory to the presidential task force on the auto industry, was asked by a Bloomberg TV reporter whether the total tab could reach 30 or 40 billion dollars.

GM and Chrysler have already received 17.4 billion in loans in the wake of a collapse of auto sales amid a deepening recession.

"It could be considerably higher, I won't deny that," Rattner said, according to a transcript released by Bloomberg.

"What they've asked for depends on them achieving plans that are somewhat ambitious.

"We haven't finished analyzing (the plans) and I'm not here to pronounce on them. But like all management teams, they tend to take a reasonably, slightly perhaps, optimistic view of their business. So it could be more. I can't rule that out. And I don't know when the taxpayers will get it back."