Lutz blames cheap gas for poor US fuel economy
Bob Lutz and Rick Wagoner in front of the VoltOnly gas prices at the level that Europeans pay will cause Americans to rethink their vehicles, Lutz said. Current European gasoline prices are the equivalent of about $8 a gallon, he said.
“If for the last 15 years we’d had a slow but sure rise in federal fuel taxation of, say, 15 cents a gallon per year -- that would have gradually put the customer in the equation,” he said.
There are some more great Lutz quotes in this AutoWeek article as well.
Labels: fuel economy
posted by Dahcredyns at
7:10 AM
5 Comments:
Typical lack of ownership. Silly me. I thought that maybe GM might have invested in lobbyists to keep fuel taxes down to be able to sell more large American-made cars because GM can't figure our how to make a small car with any quality on our shores.
Granted, too many politicians won't back a gas tax because it is career-suicide, but denying reality leads not just to career suicide, but also societal suicide.
Interesting points on GM.
I'm sure that GM has been more than happy that gas prices have remained cheap.
Still, I think Lutz is correct.
For example, it's interesting that GM can make profitable small cars in Europe, for example, but not in the US.
Likewise, if foreign automakers had to use only UAW employees in their US manufacturing operations, could they profitably produce US built small cars only for the US markets? Would they want to?
I think it all just points out how badly our economy has really been affected by cheap gas. Ultimately, it stunted America's innovation into alternative energy and new technologies. If Americans had been paying the real cost of gas at the pump, the US auto industry would probably be in far better shape today.
Yet, gas really hasn't been cheap, we've only been paying the finance charges for the last few decades. At some point we'll either have to pay off the bill or face ruin.
Cheap gas is like fast food, just because it makes you fat, dumb and happy doesn't mean its good for you.
That's a cop-out. You can't tell me that GM does not use its political clout to keep taxes off gas. Sharing the blame with the UAW may be appropriate, but GM (and Lutz in particular) has only used this excuse to clear his own conscience. Few if any people have more potential to influence more realistic expectations for fuel economy than Mr. Lutz.
Please don't lower yourself to drink his Kool-Aid.
Why do so many want to blame GM, but give so little responsibility to Congress and our elected politicians? It's as if our poor little politicians are just too dumb to blame - just innocent little lambs tricked for decades by GM's lobbyists.
Moreover, I don't understand how anyone can believe that fuel economy is more important than the price of gasoline.
The price of gasoline can naturally dictate fuel economy via consumer choice - hey, almost sounds like free-market economics.
The fuel economy of automobiles, on the other hand, cannot as easily dictate the price of gasoline. If gas is cheap, fuel economy doesn't matter and consumers have proven that fact for decades. And when the government artificially keeps gas low to hide extra military spending than I have to place my focus on Congress, not GM and Lutz.
Still, if GM is creating SUV demand by not providing other choices, why is Toyota, which became successful selling small, cheap cars in America decades ago, acting more and more more like GM? GM lobbyists again?
Why isn't Hyundai flooding the market with brilliant small cars that consumers really want more than GM's SUVs? Hyundai doesn't care about such easy money? Again, GM's lobbyists?
To me it's all very simple.
If Americans simply paid for the military and coast guard costs of securing America's foreign oil dependency at the gas pump, everything about the US automotive industry would change instantly.
Plus, I don't see how $8.00 gas would benefit Lutz and GM. The real cost of gasoline would be far more difficult for GM to deal with than any loopholed-CAFE legislation coming out of Congress.
Just because Lutz realizes this situation doesn't mean I'm absolving Lutz or GM of any responsibility. If Americans paid the real cost of gas at the pump, I wouldn't have to, the market would naturally decide winners and losers.
Its not about money. It is about energy and the environment and what's left for my kids to live in. Maybe Ford execs need to be sharing the ire I aim at Lutz here. My mistakenly anonymous retort on Lutz owning-up was angled at shouldering some blame for his own greedy, short-sighted strategies.
Long story short, our leaders (politicians or corporate executives) are arrogant and greedy. They need to look some 10 year-olds in the eye and tell them what their world is probably going to be like when they are our age. No Jetson's crap. More like Jericho.
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