The Prius Effect? Only to those with the loser effect
GM saw a joke in the Prius, Toyota saw the futureThe 'Prius effect'. That's what competitors have labeled the success that hybrid cars have provided for Toyota. Boy, it's sadly comical how losers look for excuses in everything, and the Prius effect is a prime example of that 'loser effect'.
"We didn't appreciate the image value of hybrids," concedes GM's research and development chief, Larry Burns in a BusinessWeek interview. "We missed that."
That's not the only thing GM missed!
This 'Prius effect' statement has also been echoed by both GM head Rick Wagoner and by GM product guru, Bob Lutz. Even worse, Bob Lutz claimed that GM could have beat Toyota to the Prius, if they had used a fraction of their billion dollar marketing budget for this purpose. Instead, GM spent the money advertising the virtues of its foreign-oil-dependency-increasing gas-guzzlers.
Obviously, a much better investment, at least in terms of "image value" at that time. (Read more of the Prius Effect)
Labels: bob lutz, e flex system, GM, hybrid synergy drive, Hybrid Vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, toyota, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
12:25 PM
1 Comments:
(Rest of Story)
Even worse, American tax payers gave the Big 3 as much as a billion dollars in incentives to develop such a vehicle. Instead, we got the Iraq War.
GM apparently still fails to realize that Toyota didn't develop the Prius hybrid car for media hype or "image value". Toyota built the Prius because it's a step towards the future, it's part of their Kaizen-culture to be driven by efficiency, not "image value". Unlike GM, Toyota is more focused on reality, rather than trying to use the media to influence the perception of reality into something unreal, but profitable to GM.
Like GM, BW states, "There's an ironic side to all this. In the U.S., GM sells more models that get more than 30 mpg than any other carmaker."
Yet, Toyota - overall - is still a more fuel efficient automaker than is GM. That's simply a fact. Moreover, most of GM's 30 models aren't great sellers. Additionally, they achieve 30 mpg on the highway. That might work in much of the Midwest, but it doesn't work on the coasts. City driving is key, not highway driving. In urban conditions GM's 30 models are much less fuel efficient. Since not only congestion, but increasing congestion, is the future for most Americans, 30 mpg on the highway doesn't mean as much in reality, even though it has good "image value".
Inevitably, Toyota isn't talking about what it is going to do in the future, Toyota has already taken a step into the future with its Hybrid Synergy Drive. While there has been a lot of hoopla regarding the Volt hybrid concept, Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive ramps up to fuel cells just as the Volt's E Flex Drive does, and the Hybrid Synergy Drive can also evolve into plug-in hybrids along the way (more on the E Flex Drive versus the Hybrid Synergy Drive).
Just because GM announces the possibility of plug-in hybrids doesn't mean they've taken a step ahead of Toyota. There are ALREADY Toyota Prius plug-in hybrids on the road today. Toyota just doesn't think they are cost effective yet. Based on the success of Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, I certainly wouldn't bet that GM will beat Toyota to plug-ins - at least not commercially successful plug-in hybrids.
Consequently, the term 'Prius effect' is just marketing jargon created by people more focused on perception than on technology. Too often, those using the term Prius effect are simply suffering from the excuse-making loser effect.
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