(Corrects year in which Rick Wagoner became CEO of General Motors in 10th paragraph.)

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. asked the U.S. for as much as $16.6 billion in new loans, more than doubling the aid to date, and said it needs some of the cash next month to survive as it sheds brands and cuts 47,000 more jobs worldwide.

Chrysler LLC, propped up like GM with federal assistance, said it’s seeking $5 billion more from the government and will shed 3,000 more positions.

The automakers’ fates are now in the hands of the Obama administration, which must decide whether to give them the additional money or let them go bankrupt. Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, yesterday didn’t rule out forcing the companies to restructure through bankruptcy.

“Most of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to cost cutting is gone,” said Rebecca Lindland, an IHS Global Insight Inc. analyst in Lexington, Massachusetts. “You get to the point where you’re throwing good money after bad.”

GM and Chrysler met a deadline yesterday to report progress in revamping operations with $17.4 billion in loans granted so far and got a boost from tentative accords with the United Auto Workers to cut labor costs. Now, they must show the U.S. by March 31 that they can return to profit in order to keep the money.

‘Tighten Things Down’

“We will tighten things down and hang on as long as we can” as the new request is considered, GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Detroit-based automaker said it will run out of cash without a payment of $2 billion in March.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he will start reviewing the companies’ plans later this week when he and Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, convene an autos task force.

“I wouldn’t preclude policy choices, particularly since we haven’t seen the details” of the plans, Gibbs told reporters yesterday before the GM and Chrysler filings. The automakers said in those plans that bankruptcy might cost the U.S. as much as $110 billion.

GM said at least $9.1 billion more in loans is needed to finish restructuring, and that sum could rise to $16.6 billion should the economy worsen. Detroit-based GM has received $13.4 billion since December.

The global job reductions would be about 19 percent of GM’s workforce, based on the total of 244,500. When Wagoner took over as CEO in June 2000, the company had 401,000 employees worldwide.

The retrenchment includes closing five more U.S. plants by 2012; deciding whether to sell or shut the Hummer unit by the end of March; and chopping salaries by as much as an additional 30 percent for the four-most senior officers after Wagoner, who is working for $1 a year.

Fewer Brands

The company said in December it will trim its product lineup to four principal brands: Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Pontiac would survive only as a niche model.

Production of Saturn cars would stop in 2011, if the brand hasn’t been sold, GM said yesterday. Should dealers or other investors present a proposal, GM “would be open” to a spinoff or sale, according to the automaker’s viability plan.

The Saab Automobile unit may have to be restructured under Swedish bankruptcy laws without government support there, GM said.

GM rose 2 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $2.20 at 10:28 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares fell 92 percent in the past year through yesterday. Ford Motor Co., which isn’t seeking U.S. aid, gained 3 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $1.72.

Chrysler’s Plan

Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Chrysler said it needs an additional $5 billion by March 31 after receiving an initial installment of $4 billion. The new job cuts at the third-largest U.S. automaker would be in addition to 32,000 shed through the end of last year.

Losses at Chrysler were $8 billion last year, according to the plan. The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based company projects a 2009 loss of $1.1 billion and a 2010 profit of $600 million, based on receiving $9 billion in loans.

Both automakers offered more-pessimistic outlooks for 2009 U.S. auto sales, with GM saying the market could be as few as 9.5 million vehicles. Last year’s total was 13.2 million, and the average this decade through 2008 was 16.4 million.

GM and Chrysler again rebuffed the idea of bankruptcy filings. GM said it examined three bankruptcy scenarios, with price tags of as much as $100 billion, and that all were less- favorable options than a rescue.

Bankruptcy Views

“All research indicates bankruptcy would have a dramatic impact on GM sales,” GM said in its 117-page plan, citing a study that concluded 80 percent of consumers wouldn’t buy a car from a bankrupt company. “A restructuring process outside of bankruptcy is highly preferable,” GM’s report said.

Bankruptcy “would create unbearable stress not only for our suppliers, but also the suppliers of other automakers,” Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli said in a briefing with reporters. “It would have a cataclysmic effect on the entire auto industry.”

Liquidating the automaker might cost 2 million to 3 million jobs, according to Chrysler’s plan.

To meet loan requirements, GM and Chrysler have been trying to persuade the UAW to accept equity instead of cash for half of next year’s scheduled payments into union-run funds for retiree health care.

Discussions are continuing over how the companies will finance those trusts, the UAW said in an e-mailed statement announcing the preliminary agreement on other contract terms.

The accord lowers labor costs to “competitive parity” with expenses at the U.S. factories of overseas automakers, Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s group vice president for manufacturing and labor affairs, said in a statement.

Lender Agreement

In a filing today, GM said it reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other lenders allowing the U.S. government to have second liens on assets pledged for secured debt in exchange for in increase in interest rates and other changes. The agreement also excludes a requirement that 2008 financial statements include a certification GM is a “going concern.”

GM is in talks with bondholders as part of a U.S. requirement to pare its $27.5 billion in unsecured public debt to $9.2 billion. Advisers to an ad hoc bondholder group said they were reviewing GM’s plan and awaiting details of the UAW agreement.

GM’s 8.375 percent bonds due in July 2033 rose 0.38 cent to 15.5 cents on the dollar, yielding 53.8 percent, according to Trace, the bond-pricing service of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Aid Talks Abroad

Talks are under way with the governments of Canada, Germany, the U.K., Sweden and Thailand to obtain about $6 billion in aid by 2010, GM said. The automaker said it would need additional funds “to sustain certain operations outside the U.S.”

GM Europe is willing to look at selling stakes in the Adam Opel GmbH and Vauxhall brands or finding partners for them as a way of reducing the need for plant closures or mass firings, division President Carl-Peter Forster, Opel Managing Director Hans Demant and regional works council Chairman Klaus Franz said today in a statement.

Saab, based in Trollhaettan, Sweden, may need as much as 10 billion kronor ($1.13 billion) to survive until next year, Swedish Industry Minister Maud Olofsson said at a Stockholm news conference today. She reiterated that the government wouldn’t seek to take over the GM unit.

Germany’s government is waiting for GM to provide more details about plans for European plants before determining how much public funding to extend, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said today at a Berlin news briefing. Opel is based in the German town of Ruesselsheim.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net; John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 18, 2009 11:57 EST