Bob Lutz on the Future

[Vger]

I was at the same event with Bonnie, heard that same things, and suffered the same massive disappointment. After "Revenge of the Electric Car", I was really excited to meet him and hear him speak. I was shocked and dismayed to hear what he actually said, and how aloof he was.

 

[bonnie]

Meeting you and Chad S made the event . Lutz ... not so much.

 

[Vger]

Thanks, eh!

 

[napabill]

Also, I believe, Lutz was the driving force behind GM's move to the slab-sided design, most notable in the Cadillacs. IMHO, the ugliest trend ever in car design.

 

[Quacker]

Also, I believe, Lutz was the driving force behind GM's move to the slab-sided design, most notable in the Cadillacs. IMHO, the ugliest trend ever in car design.

I disagree, I think some of the cadillacs are the best looking cars in their price range when you compare them to the competition.

 

[dpeilow]

Lutz on the past.

Bob Lutz: Electrifying small cars do the larger vehicles first

 

[Doug_G]

Lutz on the past.

Bob Lutz: Electrifying small cars do the larger vehicles first

He's got a point - the VIA Trucks are an excellent application for plug-in hybrid technology.

 

[TEG]

Reminds me of Wrightspeed...
What Tech News and Analysis

...
The race car market is only so big, however — although as Wright puts it, it’s got “great halo effects and good margins.” That’s why Wrightspeed also plans to use its hybrid drive-train system technology to eventually sell into the medium-duty truck market, and is starting out by selling a hybrid conversion kit to companies with truck fleets.
As TruckingInfo put it, medium duty trucks — those commercial vehicles that haul anything from food to furniture — are “the workhorses of the American economy,” and use over 8 billion gallons of fuel per year. Reducing this fuel consumption by just a fraction is both a major market opportunity and can also make a significant dent in carbon emissions. Financier T. Boone Pickens is also eyeing this market by backing natural gas truck conversion kits...

 

[vfx]

Bob says tax gasoline.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130418/BUSINESS0101/304180142/general-motors-bob-lutz-fuel-economy-taxes

 

[cwerdna]

I heard him speak about how global warming is not real, greatly upsetting an audience.
As the featured speaker, I heard him talk about how the Volt was the right solution and all-electric was not.

His views on global warming aren't new: GM.

I'm not surprised by how stance on the Volt. It's his baby.

There is a nice video of an interview with Bob and Elon by Charlie Rose (if my memory serves me right) where he has nothing but praise for the Model S and expresses his opinion that it will be a success. Elon responds with a surprised "really?".

Charlie Rose - Robert A. Lutz & Elon Musk is the interview, if anyone wants to watch.

Lutz on the past.

Bob Lutz: Electrifying small cars do the larger vehicles first

I'm not surprised about his approach. It roughly parallels what GM did: coming out w/very expensive guzzler two-mode hybrids (e.g. Tahoe Hybrid, Escalade Hybrid, etc.), not coming out w/anything in the league of the Prius for mileage and then having only weak engineering effort BAS mild-hybrids (e.g. Malibu Hybrid, Vue Hybrid, etc.) None of those sold well (December 2010 Dashboard: Year End Tally - HybridCars.com and December 2009 Dashboard: Year-End Tally - HybridCars.com, for example).

At least GM resurrected the BAS mild hybrids in a 2nd gen and doesn't put the hybrid name on them anymore. They instead call it eAssist (and call some of them Eco). At least those are doing better now but big two-modes still sell poorly: March 2013 Dashboard - HybridCars.com and the two partners of Global Hybrid Cooperation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (BMW, Chrysler, Daimler) don't bother making them anymore.

 

[Doug_G]

Bob says tax gasoline.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130418/BUSINESS0101/304180142/general-motors-bob-lutz-fuel-economy-taxes

He's not wrong. A carbon tax makes a lot of economic sense. It simply isn't possible politically.

 

[ZBB]

He's not wrong. A carbon tax makes a lot of economic sense. It simply isn't possible politically.

Which is too bad -- since Europe's history proves it works.

For reference, about the same time the US came up with the CAFE approach (which is a supply-focused approach -- ie force the automakers to meet a fleet average fuel economy with a relatively low penalty for non compliance (currently $55 per vehicle for every 1mpg under the standard -- so can easily be priced in). Europe took a 2-prong approach that hit demand by a) charging higher taxes on the sale of cars with higher displacement engines (usually cutoff at ~2.0 liters) and b) raising taxes on fuel. They later decided to give diesel a bit of a tax break since it could lead to higher fuel economy... The result: The US still has plenty of larger cars, many with >3 liter engines; Europe sees much smaller cars on average, most below 2 liters and diesel...

 

[vfx]

Someone was telling me about a state that charges registration fees based on a car's HP. All I can say is I hope there is an exception on EVs.

 

[dsm363]

Someone was telling me about a state that charges registration fees based on a car's HP. All I can say is I hope there is an exception on EVs.

Some insurance companies use a certain weight/HP ratio I believe to classify a performance vs. standard car. The p85 fell into the non-performance category which I though was funny.

 

[brianman]

The p85 fell into the non-performance category which I though was funny.

That totally makes sense, dsm. And that is all we shall say about the subject.

Hi, insurance companies!