Detroit News, March 11, 2014
Washington— The Department of Homeland Security plans to award a contract for the design of the next-generation presidential limousine by late August, to be ready by the time the next president takes office in 2017.
According to a contract proposal posted last week by the U.S. Secret Service on the government’s contracting site, the administration plans to award the contract by Aug. 29, “based on best value to the government.”
The project is in four phases, the Secret Service said. “Phase 1, armor development, is currently underway. Phase 2 work will include integration of the armor design developed during Phase 1 of the program. Phase 2 requirements will include selection and integration of final automotive components, chassis, interior, exterior, and test vehicle fabrication and automotive component testing. Phase 3 will be focused on automotive validation and Phase 4 production of vehicles,” said the proposal, which was reported earlier by Time magazine.
The contract proposal says bids are “restricted to Major domestic U.S Automobile Manufacturers, who have their primary headquarters located in the United States of America.”
General Motors Co. has built the Cadillac presidential limousine for more than 30 years. A spokeswoman for Ford Motor Co. — which had previously built presidential limousines for decades — didn’t immediately comment on whether the Dearborn automaker plans to make a bid for the project.
The newest presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast,” made its debut just before President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. It has shiny 16-spoke wheels and a distinctive Cadillac grille complete with the GM brand’s crest. The president on weekends for personal business typically travels around in an armored Chevrolet Suburban.
GM said last year it was proud to work on the car.
“There’s more security around the development of a presidential limo than any of our products,” GM vice president for design Ed Welburn said in a Detroit News interview in September. “It takes a number of years to develop the car. It’s a great project to work on. This particular one, more so than any of them in the past. In the past, they were retrofitting existing vehicles — with this, this is really from the ground up a new vehicle, and we really do it right.”
In August, NBC “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno received a toy model of the limo from President Barack Obama during a stop on the show. “My friend Ed Welburn designed that car,” Leno told Obama.
When on official business, Obama typically travels in the Cadillac limousine, which was built at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant off the company’s medium-duty truck platform.
The armor on the presidential limousine is reportedly five inches thick. It has run-flat tires, bulletproof glass and a completely sealed interior to ward off a chemical attack. It also has significant electronic communications equipment. It’s compared by many to a tank.
Other facts also are secret like the vehicle’s curb weight — though based on earlier models, it is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
The newest limousine replaced the 2006 Cadillac DTS presidential limousine that President George W. Bush has used since his second inauguration in 2005.
The Secret Service hasn’t disclosed previously how much it has paid to build the vehicles.
In 2011, the limo came under scrutiny when the Secret Service said some federal vehicles are exempt from Obama’s directive that all federal vehicles purchased starting 2015 be advanced-technology models.
As a candidate for president in 2008, Obama unveiled an energy strategy that called for boosting electric vehicles in the federal fleet.
“Within one year of becoming president, the entire White House fleet will be converted to plug-ins as security permits; and half of all cars purchased by the federal government will be plug-in hybrids or all electric by 2012,” his campaign fact sheet said.
In fact, none of the vehicles in the White House fleet were converted.