Posted on 02/15/2010 8:31:08 AM PST by neverdem
Detroit — What if the vehicles of the future don’t make money?
General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz continued his habit of talking truth to power last week — despite the fact that his company is now a subsidiary of the U.S. government. GM owners Barack Oama and Nancy Pelosi routinely claim that America is transitioning to a green transportation future, but Lutz stepped all over their lines at an industry event Friday when he said that hybrids will never comprise more than 10 percent of the U.S. market. Lutz was only expressing an industry consensus that hybrid-electrics are niche vehicles (like muscle cars) that enhance a company’s image but are too limited in appeal to go mainstream.
Worse, Lutz said that hybrids are money pits that will have to be subsidized by other GM vehicles.
Lutz has spearheaded GM’s plug-in Chevy Volt (due later this year) as a “halo car” enhancing GM’s green image. But he has also been skeptical of hybrids, pointing out the paradox of consumers who say they like fuel-efficient vehicles even as they are unwilling to pay hybrid premiums.
Meanwhile, Washington is pushing Detroit companies to build more hybrids. A good idea? GM’s taxpayer shareholders may want to listen to car guy Lutz.
— Henry Payne is an editorial writer and cartoonist for the Detroit News.
I’ll have one of these babes please, low-technology and all:
http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-1970-1979/1971-Oldsmobile-442-Red-fa-d-sy.jpg
From Atlas Shrugged:
The president of a failed automobile company bragged that he was righteous because his company never made a profit.
The way Toyota handled their “sticky pedal”, “floor mat” problem won't sell me a Toyota either. This is a problem Toyota has known about for months and tried to fix it by telling the owners to just remove the floor mat. They need to suffer financially for their lack of respect for the intelligence of auto buyers.
Well - if the cars of the future are unprofitable, and GM was the most experienced, next to Chrysler, in building the unprofitable (net, net) cars of the past, what is Lutz complaining about? This is what they were born for, evidently.
As to a previous poster commenting that some CAFE standard offsetting cars are what wee need to have “Corvettes in the fleet” so the “fed” goes away happy...the point is they never go away happy, they just come back for more, time and again until there are no “Corvettes in the fleet”. Don’t be so sanguine with mollifying the “Fed”.
I rarely hear anyone speak about the benefits of NG.
It is estimated the U.S. supply of natural gas is hundreds of years. 22 trillion cubic feet added to the hundreds of trillions already estimated was just discovered in a field off the coast of La.
Plentiful, clean burning, not cost prohibitive, existing vehicle designs are easily converted, distribution network already in place.
Talk of converting all commercial fleets to NG back in the late 70’s/early 80’s just vanished.
Did I mention.....clean burning?
I LOL
Lutz is toast
truth be damned
I think some metro areas already run all their buses on natural gas.
Not to sound like a conspiracy nut, but maybe the reason it has not become commonplace is because Exxon, Shell and BP among others would not control the distribution of it.
Also, fork lifts among other commercial equipment already run on propane.
He may be right, but certainly the fact that GM is coming out with a plug-in hybrid gives him a reason to proclaim the non-plug-in hybrids as being “niche” cars that nobody wants.
Quite self-serving in fact, given his Chevy Volt is heaviliy subsidized with our tax dollars and will still cost thousands more than the non-plug-in hybrids.
I'm not seeing why they wouldn't, they're the ones who drill for it.
Anyhow, I hear about all the gas we have, yet it seems like we use it sparsely.
Just a thought.
Wrong, and Wrong.
The "analysis" comparing the Prius to a Hummer was totally debunked, and based on such faulty logic as presuming the Prius would be scrapped after 100,000 miles since that was when the warranty expired, while the Hummer was expected to survive almost 3 times as long.
There are virtually no reports of replacing Prius batteries yet:
And Toyota claims that not one has required a battery replacement due to malfunction or "wearing out." The only replacement batteries sold--at the retail price of $3000--have been for cars that were involved in accidents. Toyota further claims that the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs used in all Prius models are expected to last the life of the car with very little to no degradation in power capability.I have two Prius, one's 8 years old, the other 6, and neither has needed a battery replacement, or worn out any other items except the batteries. I haven't even had to replace the brakes yet.
It's good to be the Lutz.
Government owned companies don’t HAVE to make a profit.
Millions of cars, billions of miles driven, 9 incidents. Are you sure it’s the gas pedal?
Ergo, they will fit right in with the rest of the government system...............
Truth is toast.
Lutz be damned.................
Neither does amtrak, usps, freddie, fannie, or ginny.
The battery is actually very closely monitored and any lessening of capacity is known immediately.
Some batteries have failed, but very few.
The warranty is quite long on the battery anyway.
And the prices for replacement batteries have come down, plus you can find pulls from wrecks now.
Not that a Prius makes any economic sense yet, mind you.
The batteries are the last thing you need to worry about with the Prius, imo. They aren’t likely to fail on you at all.
Were not talking about propane, which is a byproduct of petroleum drilling.
Natural gas could be filled at your home through the same pipeline hooked up to your furnace, hot water heater, stove, etc. It would eliminate needing to go to the service station except when you are away from home for long distances.
It is much safer to use as opposed to Propane. Propane is heavier than air and settles to the ground in the event of a leak. Natural gas is lighter than air and rises. It is less likey to cause explosions.
Also, natural gas can be found all over the eastern US , much closer to the population centers.
They can take my 64 Chevy when they can pry the steering wheel from my cold dead fingers!
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