GM needs $2B more or they too are done

General Motors Corp. will need at least $2 billion by March to stave off bankruptcy, telling the Obama administration it may take up to a total of $30 billion in federal aid to keep the company afloat.

GM's submission brings the total request for aid from itself and Chrysler LLC to $39 billion, after Chrysler asked today for an additional $5 billion on top of the $4 billion it's already received. Without at least $7 billion from the Obama administration to the two automakers by the end of March, both face collapse.

GM said in addition to the $2 billion it needs in March and the $13.4 billion it's already received, it would require an additional $2.6 billion in April, along with a replacement for a $4.5 billion line of credit that expires in 2011. It also said it could require another $7.5 billion should the U.S. market remain depressed for a few years.

The automaker plans to shed 47,000 jobs worldwide this year, close 14 U.S. plants over the next three years, kill four brands and plot a course to become profitable by 2012. Those plans depend on cuts from bondholders, UAW workers and retirees, some of which have yet to be agreed to.

If it doesn’t get help, GM lays out the horrors of bankruptcy, saying it would cost as much as $100 billion to pull the company out of a court restructuring once it fell in.