Mulally: Ford will survive… until 2010

GM warned yesterday that it has enough cash to survive until mid-2009 without the governments help. Rival Ford says that despite burning through $16 billion in cash during the first nine months of 2008, it can still survive until 2010. According to CEO Alan Mulally, FoMoCo’s reserves of $29.6 billion in cash and credit would be enough for the automaker to stay around until 2010.

“With the assumptions we have in place, we believe we have sufficient liquidity to make it through this downturn,” Mulally told the Free Press.

FoMoCo burned through $7.7 billion in the third-quarter and reported a $3.0 billion after-tax operating loss. Ford currently has $18.9 billion in cash and $10.7 billion in credit. Of course, the 2010 survival date will only be made possible with more cuts including white-collar pay and benefit slashes and plant closings.