Lutz out, new Prius-fighting hybrids in?
Time to take on the PriusI've met GM's Bob Lutz a number of times, and I've largely been in awe of the guy every time, even though I've never really agreed with him on hardly any issue. Consequently, I'm glad that Mr. Lutz is retiring.
It's not that Lutz didn't do a lot of great things for GM, he did. Still, his hatred of the Toyota Prius - envy deep down inside I bet - was a constant topic around Lutz for many years, and Lutz's views cast a huge shadow upon GM.
Some time back, before Michael Jordan retired the second time, but before the third retirement, Coach Pat Riley stated that no one would dethrone the Chicago Bulls until Jordan left the game.
In my over-exagerated opinion, Lutz was GM's Michael Jordan, and he would have never allowed GM to produce a hybrid to directly take on the Prius. Such a vehicle, unfortunately, would confirm that GM was wrong regarding the Prius and hybrid cars oh so many years ago.
Instead, Lutz was always focused on beating the Prius, proving the whole "science experiment", as Lutz often called the Prius, wrong. That Lutzian desire led to the 'cheaper' BAS hybrid, the 'more technologically advanced' dual mode hybrid, and finally to the Chevy Volt.
Yet, as GM has sold thousands of hybrids over that time, Toyota has sold millions.
Just as disappointing, the truth is, the Volt is not going to challenge the Prius either. OK. Maybe the Volt will challenge the plug-in Prius version of the Prius, but that's it, as both plug-in hybrids are destined to remain low volume vehicles for years, maybe even a decade. Ironically, however, according to the experts, GM might have again missed the mark by putting too big of a battery pack in the Volt to ever be cost-effective without a major breakthrough in lithium battery technologies.
By no means does that mean the Volt was a mistake. It simply means it's not enough, especially in the short term. For the next 10 - 20 years, conventional hybrid vehicles like Prius are going to far outsell plug-ins like the Chevy Volt, and GM needs a more well-rounded hybrid portfolio until the Volt achieves its potential.
Of course, in no way does Lutz's retirement mean new Prius-fighting hybrids are coming from GM, but at least it seems like a legitimate possibility now, especially considering the never-ending shakeup taking place at GM.
Labels: bob lutz, Chevy Volt electric vehicle concept, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
12:46 PM
11 Comments:
Michael Jordan didn't run the Bulls into the ground ...
No he didn't, KP, but Bob Lutz didn't run GM into the ground either.
In fact, GM was in FAR worse shape before Lutz arrived and Lutz had a very positive impact on GM, overall.
Still, when it came to understanding the next century of the auto, Lutz was too grounded in the past, and he could only take GM so far.
In terms of the Jordan reference, however, I was comparing Lutz's control on new product development to Jordon's control of the NBA. Nothing happened unless Lutz wanted it to, and a Prius-figher simply wasn't going to happen on Lutz's watch.
Undoubtedly, however, GM's product quality and design improved IMMENSELY under Lutz, and I doubt there is an automotive analyst out there that has covered the auto beat for the last decade that would disagree.
Lutz made GM better, but he was just too old school to save them. Still, had Lutz not arrived at GM, GM would have breached long before their current bankruptcy.
Furthermore, Lutz wasn't GM's financial guy.
Alan Mulally saved Ford not because of new products, such as a Prius-contender, which they don't have and if it exists won't arrive before 2012, but because of a more efficient financial discipline.
Such discipline could have also prevented GM from bankruptcy as well, but that simply wasn't Lutz's job.
Still, the NBA was way better after Jordan's tenure than before. Can the same be said of GM or for that matter the Big 3?
The NBA competes with other sports leagues for fans, media, etc. Their position increased with much credit to Jordan. If you compare GM to their foreign competition over Lutz' tenure, you'll find the opposite. Even worse, their marketing and lobbying helped push American greed and waste even further away from reality than the more realistic European markets. Should we talk about CAFE, gas mileage, and the absence of an appropriate gas tax?
Don't be a fanboy Dahc. Lutz can retire with his billions and hope the Michael Moore's of the world don't have his address ...
i guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, as i think basketball has gone down hill since jordan, at least since the second retirement.
still, gm's biggest downfall was poor financial management, and that wasn't lutz's job.
according to jd power, consumer reports, etc. GM's scores went up considerably during Lutz's tenure. likewise, most in the general auto industry believe GM's design quality also greatly improved during Lutz's tenure.
those were Lutz's primary responsibilities. he wasn't the CEO, nor the CFO.
yes lutz wasn't a big fan of hybrids. that's because lutz believed that plug-in EVs and range extended EVs powered by nuclear power is the obvious answer to america's energy problems.
and there are many in the scientific community that would agree with that vision. based purely on science, lutz's vision is probably the most logical, pragmatic vision forward.
but it has no political support. is that lutz's fault?
besides, the fact is, had gm produced the prius, and the same amount of hybrids that toyota did leading up to the bankruptcy, they would have still gone bankrupt.
Revenues from all hybrid sales would have given them a few extra weeks, maybe, as some analysts claim Toyota still has not yet fully covered its hybrid costs.
besides, lutz wasn't even around when many of gm's original hybrid and ev decisions were being made.
thus, i believe there is little, and probably nothing, that lutz could have done to prevent gm from going into bankruptcy.
i take that back. he could have pandered more to the green community, tried harder to greenwash them, without actually doing anything, or making any serious changes ( kind of along the lines of bill ford).
in the end, however, i doubt that would have really help GM's bottom line that much. had lutz been CEO or CFO, i'd agree 100 percent with you, but i don' think those are fair grounds to judge lutz on.
I don't think Lutz ran GM into the ground. He led GM to the edge of a cliff.....
Lutz' attitude toward hybrids and GM's focus on trucks to stay profitable led to an even BIGGER collapse. GM was less prepared for the 2008 oil crisis than any of it's competitors......
Dahc,
Again, AFTER Jordan left it went downhill, not during his tenure. So Jordan carried it. I say Lutz helped sink Detroit. Sure he could make a car people lust for (no near-PUN intended). We did not make cars we needed. He helped us think we need cars he made. Helped with advertising. Helped with lobbying to subsidize oil. On and on. Sure, he's just helping feed the American greed. I understand that's what he was paid to do. It doesn't make him a good citizen and certainly not one to be compared with the rare greatness of a Michael Jordan. How about Plaxico Burress?
I'm sorry Dahc...I have to disagree with you about Lutz entirely. Any benefit he brought to the table was vastly outweighed by all of his other issues.
Perhaps Lutz single-handedly didn't run GM into the ground but there were enough Lutz's running around in the auto industry that did run 2 out of 3 of these big corporations into the ground.
Lutz and people like him are a dime a dozen in the American business way of life. It's rampant in all areas of this country's way of business dealings...from car companies to military. It's a disastrous, closed-minded, self-centered mentality that cares for no one except for the immediate people at the top and the greedy shareholders who own them.
Just imagine were GM could have been if they could have made quality cars and had enough vision to make EV's and hybrids.
What did we have instead? We had a dumbass in the company who thought it's not macho enough to develop hybrids and EVs...rather let's build 6000lb low grade quality pieces of shit that seat 9, get 12 MPG, and attract the biggest tools in society as customers.
Lutz is the to GM what Bush is to the President of this country...a Neanderthal troglodyte whose ego is so large and insecurities so great that rather than working towards real solutions, they work towards outdoing and outgunning everyone around them because they feel it's the manly thing to do.
Good riddance to Lutz and all who are like him.
wow. can't believe i've earned the role of lutz defender......and i understand the anti-lutz scorn.
anyway, lutz couldn't significantly change gm's product mix, even had he wanted to. in fact, gm was trying to downsize their vehicles to some extent, but such decision required UNION approval.
lets be honest. many of gm's moves were made by corporate decisions that happened long before lutz and wagoner arrived - bad union agreements that gm had to honor, many of which, btw, had been renegotiated but had not yet gone into effect.
paying guys not to build guzzlers, for instance, was part of the reason GM was burning through billions per quarter.
switching to hybrids or stopping the production of SUVs would have done little stop this cash burn. in fact, had gm stopped producing SUVs they would have lost even more money as much of SUV production had already been contracted.
ultimately, lutz is a very smart man, at least defined in the context of auto industry. moreover, he's honest. he says it the way he sees it, unlike many other auto executives that lie with a smile on their face.
while I don't agree with lutz on issues like global warming, i do respect his honesty. personally, i'd much rather hear lutz say global warming is bs, then to be lied to, which is basically what the rest of the auto industry is doing, and i'll take the truth over greenwashing any day.
again, gm needed (still needs) a new direction. lutz needed to go, however, relative to his job description, and to the auto industry, lutz did his job.
let's face it. in the context of how everyone commenting feels about the auto industry in general. lutz was a failure, as has been the ENTIRE auto industry, not just in the US, but in the world.
lutz wasn't ever going to change that, which is why i almost ALWAYS disagreed with him, but his improvements to gm quality and design - which were his primary job responsibilities - made great, great improvements under lutz.
Dahc,
Perhaps he couldn't change GM's lineup significantly but the underlying point is he didn't even want to.
He did everything in his power to represent the wasteful, egotistical phallic symbols that GM built for the no-less useless populous who bought into it.
That's really my point.
and that's a pretty good point, noz. i don't disagree, and I really don't want to spend time trying to defend lutz.
but i will defend him just one more time, but only because i think it serves a greater point.
if lutz were king of america, he'd decree that America convert to nuclear power as quickly as possible, even supplemented by wind and solar when cost-effectively feasible.
that's your entire energy paradigm. nuclear powered homes and cars. plain and simple.
and while lutz didn't believe in global warming, he said many times that a nuclear-powered EV world wouldn't just achieve energy independence, it would also significantly decrease emissions.
but a company like gm, nor bob lutz, can mandate that such a reality becomes the automotive reality, or America's path towards a new energy paradigm.
and lutz knew that very well.
that doesn't absolve lutz for not doing more to raise flags, to try to change the psychology of the consumer, etc, but i really doubt that, outside of PR, that lutz could have changed much.
Indigo Incarnates
I doubt GM has the drive or innovation to build a truly affordable/accessible alternative to the Prius. GM is more interested in securing government grants and bailouts.
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