GM's Lutz Defends Muscle Cars and Chevy Volt in Washinton Post Interview
By John O'Dell June 9, 2009Says Cars Now Dictated by Federal Policy, Not Demand, But Calls Volt Part of the Future
He still comes across as a sort of automotive Neanderthal, convinced that if Detroit just keeps shoving muscle cars out the door people will gobble them up.
But Bob Lutz (left), General Motors' vice chairman and car guy extraordinaire is also the Chevrolet Volt's biggest backer and provided a fascinating look in Sunday's Washington Post at how the Volt came to be and what he thinks of its chances and its ability to help rejuvenate the General.
The lengthy article, well worth reading, explores GM's financial decline, its unwillingness in the early days to see Toyota's funny little Prius as a serious threat and throughout is saturated with Lutz's view of things.
It is, in fact, a fond look at the man who brought us the Dodge Viper as well as the Volt and is preparing to retire later this year at age 77 after 45 years in the auto industry, where he's worked at Opel and BMW in Germany, at Ford, Chrysler and GM, and also spent three years as head of battery developer Exide Corp.
But we digress.
Volt Needed, Not Desired
On the topic of the Volt, Lutz remains insistent that it is exactly the kind of car GM needs to produce right now in order to satisfy political demand for advanced-technology, fuel-efficient cars.
He's not persuaded though, that the Volt or any other green car is what the American consumer is crying out for.
Like an infamous former vice president of the U.S., Lutz divides the country into East and West coast intellectuals and the rest of America, which he says still wants V8 engines and sexy styling.
"When you get out into the marketplace, it's probably just 5 percent of the public that desperately wants something environmentally sound and is willing to pay a premium for it," he said in the interview.
"I would say the East and West Coast intellectual establishment kind of lives in its own world. When you get to the broad American marketplace, excitement [over autos] is still kind of defined in the way it used to be."
But remember, Lutz is 77 and was brought up in the heyday of the performance car. His insights into what today's 16-year-olds will want when they can start buying new cars are focused through that lens.
Government Dictate
He says that GM and by default, the rest of the U.S. auto industry and foreign carmakers who want to sell vehicles here, now are being told what kinds of cars to build by government policy wonks rather than be true market forces.
Media reports and politicians, he says, make it sound as though everybody in the country wants a hybrid or a car like the Volt. "But when you look at the reality, at today's fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car."
That may be the case, but Lutz seems to be believe that the auto industry can survive by selling only what people want today without planning on and building market presence for what is likely to be in demand tomorrow, when low gas prices will be just a fond memory.
He acknowledges, though, that GM made a big mistake by misreading the importance of the Toyota Prius. It so-called "halo effect" helped the Japanese carmaker build and sell bigger, less-efficient cars and trucks by making the Toyota name synonymous with fuel efficiency, he says.
Birth of Volt
When the magnitude of the mistake finally did sink in, Lutz says, he marched into John Lauckner's office and told the vice president of global program management and director of GM advance design that the company needed to build another electric car.
The first one, GM's famed EV-1, was introduced in a pilot program in 1996 and was killed in 2004 when, the automaker insists, it decided it couldn't make a profit with the car - a decision that's been challenged by thousands of vociferous electric car fans over the years.
Numerous discussions followed and Lutz's idea for a 150-mile battery-electric car morphed into the Volt, a hybridized series hybrid in which only the electric motor drives the car, the battery pack is charged from the commercial power grid and delivers juice for up to 40 miles of travel on each charge and the on-board generator then kicks on to make electricity until the fuel tank needs refilling.
With the small four-cylinder gas engine planned for the Volt, the GM team figures 300 miles of total range isn't out of the question. Other generators, including diesel engines and if the fuel becomes available, hydrogen internal combustion engines or hydrogen fuel cell could be used for more mileage and cleaner emissions.
More Electric Range to Come
Lutz also said in the interview that GM "hopes" to have future generations of the volt that can run on battery power alone for up to 150 miles - an advance that would require tremendous improvement in battery technology to make them light, power-dense and affordable enough to do the job.
With the car scheduled to go into production at the tail end of 2011 it is still a long way down the road, but Lutz said he believes it is a much-needed symbol of symbol of change at GM and that it will attract needed new customers.
He views the Volt as the car that helped GM win desperately needed government financing for its reorganization.
Think where GM would be now," he said, "if we not made the decision to productionize the Volt, a year and a half ago...We can say "See, we transform the automobile, we can be the company that electrifies the automobile.' We can say, 'Yes, we can.'"
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Click here to comment on this entry.I'd say most people want something enviromentally sound and are willing to pay a premium for it.
Who could honestly say " No, I don't want better mileage and cleaner air".
The real queation is how much are they willing to pay? Very few will pay double which will be a problem with cars like the Volt or the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
GM should be concentrating on more smaller, lighter cars and less on PR projects like the Volt.
If you planted both Wagoner and Lutz in peatmoss, fed them Miracle Grow 24 hours a day, they would not grow one inch. The reason GM is sinking was fully explained in this article.
Planned obsolescence served the bastards for generations; leaving them unable to focus on a changing marketplace.
I think you have to be careful when you talk about the "guy who brought us the Dodge Viper..."
As originally invisioned, the Viper was a much smaller car. The designer was pretty disappointed in the management decision to make it a huge cartoon.
Lutz has shaped things- for the worse. I think he has taken good ideas and made them worse, or just sees them as political ends (like the Volt). He doesn't BELIEVE in any of it.
He is the old vanguard and I liken his attitude to that of AIG. Despite the huge, catastrophic mistakes and being on the gov dole- did not change the basic attitude that brought them here in the first place.
If Obama seriously wants GM to survive and thrive, he needs to make some harsh choices. That means restructuring the top. The workers will build whatever they are told to. It's the head that is poisoned here.
There IS room for muscle cars, hybrids and ev's but you need a leader that sees and believes in the future and has a vision.
Toyota is one company that is percieved as a "green" leader yet they produce plenty of luxo/V8/suv's.
It's striking a balance and setting a corporate tone. It's about leadership.
With regards to Lutz, I will paraphrase a quote from David Letterman- "You don't believe half the stuff you're talking about but I'm pretty sure most of it is crap."
I'm sure the Volt will pale in comparison to the already released Insight or new Prius.
I agree completely kingkhalas.
I read everything I can find on the Volt and right now it will work great until the battery is drained.
Then the 1.4 L gas engine will start and run 100% of the time at 3500 to 4000 rpm (depend what you read) to keep up with the much large electric motor.
Picture yourself sitting at a light with the engine racing at near 4000 rpm in a "green" car while the Prius beside you sits in silence.
Doesn't sound very green or very enjoyable to me. In fact it sounds like a poor idea that is being pushed through for PR and government handout reasons.
LOL @ firstwagon. You couldn't be anymore ill informed about the Volt.
And Bob Lutz is right in every statement he made. The government is slowly forcing production of the electric car that the majority of Americans' have no desire for, except when gas is $3.50+ per gallon. First it was "the hole in the ozone layer" and now it's "reduce our dependence on foreign oil and fight climate change". What's the next tag line going to be? If the Democrats really wanted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we would drill in our own country. ;)
I can hear the drum beats of the cynical crowd shouting out, "Down with General Motors! Long live Toyota!"
Really, like the article says, Toyota is just as hypocritical as GM, coming out with huge pickup trucks and SUVs. Could it be as well that the Prius program be a stunning public relations event?
I assert that if Toyota came out with an extended range electric car, there would be parades and flag waving from an enthusiastic fans of the Japanese automaker.
Lutz is the exemplar of why GM is bankrupt. Does he really think that the gloss of the Prius is why Toyota is ascendant? It's because Toyota's cars are indestructible! They don't break down. Toyota has been locked down on that strategy for 30 years while GM swayed in the breeze and allowed Lutz to spout his wacko opinions. Premium price for the Prius? It deserves it even without the hybrid engine. Until the Insight, it was the ONLY roomy hatchback on the road. Take away the hybrid engine and the Prius still doesn't have any competitors based on space utilization! If you've ever driven one for any number of miles you'd realize that the thing is a miracle of design. And the Prius is one of the most reliable cars on the road. GM's quality has improved but not to the level of Ford . . . and I wonder why GM is bankrupt and Ford isn't?
"LOL @ firstwagon. You couldn't be anymore ill informed about the Volt. "
How so?
How do you expect the small gas motor/ generator combination will keep up with the large electric motor?
It's designed to run at a constant speed. It puts out far less power then the electric motor so it must constantly to average out enough power.
How do you see it working differently?
firstwagon-
"far less" power from the has engine vs the electric motor is a misnomer. Just like a gas engine, the vast majority of the time, the the electric motor will put out far less power than the rated peak of 120kW (~160HP). The gas engine will put out half of that when it runs - and that will only be so after the 40 miles. So technically, if you commute less than 40, next to a Pruis, as you pull away and the Prius is running on gas, the Volt will be whisper quiet and will not need gas at all. Beyond that, as I understand it, the gas engine won't fully recharge the battery, but it will re-charge it to a point above the threshold. As such, at a traffic light, it's likely the engine will shut off to conserve fuel just as with a Prius and turn on again only when the SOC (state of charge) drops below the set point for the batteries again. The reality of that, and how often the engine recharges the batteries, etc will depend heavily on driving style, and the development effort, which as you know is not yet complete. As such, judging the Volt dumb, stupid, worthless or whatever is ludicrous right now. You can judge GM stupid and Lutz stupid for being 10 years or more late to the game relative to Toyota/Honda - but the design idea here is quite sound. It can achieve better efficiency on paper than any traditional hybrid like the Prius. It's just a matter of what GM engineers are capable of - and since we can't drive a production car yet, it's unfair to judge.
wytman
I never said "dumb, stupid, worthless " nor did I
" judge GM stupid and Lutz stupid ".
I said it was a poor idea.
It is possible that if you drive with a light enough foot, the batteries will be able to regain some charge but since the gas engine/generator puts out less then half what the drive motor can use I suspect most of all of it's power will be going to drive the car.
Remember this is fairly heavy car and once the battery is depleted, it's only source of power is a 1.4 L motor. You won't even get all the power of the 1.4 as it's power is used to spin a genenator whose power then goes to charge batteries and finally makes it to the drive motor.
I suspect they will have to bypass the batteries most of the time just to maintain close to adaquate performance.
This will result in very little charging of the battery and thus the motor will have to run 100% of the time or close to it just to keep the car rolling. As generators are most efficent at a higher constant speed, it will have to run at fairly high revs too.
I've been in engineering for around 20 years. When the idea of the Volt first came out I thought it was very interesting. However the more I thought about it, the problems in basic design I came up with.
I believe you will get a car that's really good for the first 40 miles (quiet, powerful, clean) and really poor after that (noisy, slow and dirty).
And I think that's it taking so long and why the only engineering mules we've seen only ran on batteries. The rest of the system is not what the public will accept in a car.
At least not when better designs like the Prius are out there.
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