With US automakers facing worst crisis in their history, the federal government is now under tremendous pressure to extract a high-labour, high-manufacturing business from the thick of the slowdown.

The US auto industry is looking for additional $50 billion in federal aid package to prevent them from going bankrupt as politicians rally behind the idea of a bailout. This is in addition to the $25 billion already spent last month on upgrading the facilities.

President-elect Barack Obama knows that saving the auto industry is critical and that the reasons go beyond the fact that auto industrial belt is prominent in his home state Illinois. Little wonder he made a special mention for auto giants in his first press briefing.

Overall, US car sales in October were down 32 per cent. Ford has lost almost $3 billion in the third quarter and will cut its workforce by 10 per cent and its production by a staggering 33 per cent by the year end.

GM posted third quarter losses of $2.5 billion and is axing 3600 non permanent and 2000 salaried jobs. While Chrysler has put two plants on idle and has cut down 8 work shifts across the country.

Some say the way GM in particular is burning through its cash reserves it could be on the verge of bankruptcy early in the new year.

US credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service is very concerned about the auto sector and said the auto industry’s expansion plans will be hit due to the downturn.

So the big question is how much of a hit will the local industry take due to the global auto slowdown?