The “Green” movement will take this as a huge slap in the face from the biggest car manufacturer in the world. GM’s vice chairman, Bob Lutz, was quoted at a recent closed-door session with some invited journalists as saying that Global Warming was a “total crock of ****”. He also added that Hybrid cars like those made by Toyota “make no economic sense”, and that Diesel automatic cars such as those being pushed by Chrysler are only successful in Europe due to diesel being half the price of gasoline.
His comments come on the back of record losses posted by the auto giant. GM posted a huge $38.7 USD billion loss in 2007. Clearly GM need to remodel their business strategy and it does bring into question whether Lutz has become detached from the car buying public.
The jury is still out regarding Global Warming and its causes, but comments such as these are flying in the face of the general public’s opinion. Lutz may be missing the point from a business perspective, many people want to buy green, and they want to be seen as upstanding citizens doing their bit to reduce CO2 and greenhouse gases. So while many Japanese and European manufacturers are providing a choice of alternative power sources such as advance Diesels and Hybrids, is GM set to flounder with its current US line up of gas slurping SUV’s or will Lutz allow development of innovative technologies such as the Chevy Volt in the future?
And diesel is not half the price of petrol in Europe, it is 2/3rds the price at best or, as in the UK, MORE expensive. But obviously the engines show greater fuel efficeincy. These kind of metrics can be changed overnight if the taxation on the fuel types is flipped however.