Blast from the past: Bob Lutz "Tesla is headed to the graveyard"

[fritter63]

gonna rank this one right up there with my favorite Terry Bradshaw quote from 1986 (?):

"I just don't see John Elway being the type of quarterback that can take the Broncos to a Super Bowl"..........

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[Klaxon]

How about reading the title of the thread?

No, thanks. For sanitary reasons.

 

[TruckElectric]

No, thanks. For sanitary reasons.

Just admit you can't read.

 

[Klaxon]

Just admit you can't read.

Yes. Truth. But only this article. It is senseless

 

[ÆCIII]

His antics on one hand, yet footage of him walking beside and hanging with Elon at events is out there on the other hand. He bashed Tesla for years, and then only made warmer comments about Tesla recently when the truth is painfully obvious (in other words he felt 'forced' to make some positive comments about Tesla to avoid appearing like an utter moron). At times he tries to 'straddle the fence' or keep one foot in each opposite camp if it suits him. Sort of reminds me of Jim Cramer lately, except he is worse and more deviant - not unlike a lot of corporate shills without any true principals for loyalty. To me he will always be "Baghdad Bob Lutz".

 

[RMK!]

Lutz is a putz ...

 

[Mrp911]

Sure Bob!! Just like every car you ever worked on was a great success. Can anyone name any?

 

[firsttruck]

SEP 18 2018

Lutz: "Tesla has no technological advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage, no advantages whatsoever".

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/18/tes...aveyard-predicts-former-gm-exec-bob-lutz.html

Bob Lutz went to university in early 1960s and got MBA in marketing. He was never an engineer and seems to have never worked on a shop floor. Looks like he went directly from university to marketing executive. At GM he might not have ever directly used a PC computer and might have had several secretaries for that and read all his emails from printouts (Even as late as 2010, I still had to support upper management executives that did that).
Today, has anybody seen Lutz use a smartphone for anything but voice calling?

Bob Lutz
Lutz received a bachelor's degree in production management in 1961, followed by an MBA with a concentration in marketing with highest honors in 1962.
* General Motors, 1963-1971, held senior leadership positions in Europe.
* BMW, 1971 - 1974, executive VP of Global Sales and Marketing at BMW in Munich.
* Ford, 1974 - 1986, senior leadership positions. Ford board of directors (1982–86).
* Executive at Chrysler Corporation, 1986 - 1998.
* CEO Exide (batteries), 1998 - 2002. Lutz was chairman and chief executive.
* General Motors, 2001 - 2010. Sept 1, 2001, Lutz rejoined GM as vice chairman of Product Development. Nov 2001 - March 2005, chairman North America car division. April 2005, when he assumed responsibility for Global Product Development. April 1, 2009, Lutz was named vice chairman/senior advisor providing strategic input into GM's Global Design and Key Product initiatives, a position he held until retirement at the end of 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lutz_(businessman)

Bob Lutz was part of the executive team at GM that killed the GM EV1s in early 2000s (recalled all EV1 cars, crushed them, never replaced with newer version, ie EV2).
Remember in late 1990s-2000, U.S. Federal Government & State of California gave GM millions of dollars of taxpayer money to help develop BEVs. So GM executives accepted the tax payer investment then flushed the money down the drain ( some probably made into some GM exec pockets and those of friends at suppliers) because it conflicted with GM business model and the executives bonuses. Also the blood of all the millions of injured people (including many children) by air pollution from cars is on their hands.

In late 2003, General Motors worldwide CEO Rick Wagoner & chairman North America car division Bob Lutz , officially canceled the EV1 program.
GM stated that it could not sell enough of the cars to make the EV1 profitable.

** firsttruck ** complete BULLSHIT ! GM executives did not want to sell enough to be profitable and never scaled production to obtain profitability. GM sold the NiMH battery patents ( at that time the best battery tech readily usable for BEVs) to fossil fuel industry to ensure nobody else could use the tech for BEVs. This is one of the reasons Tesla had to resort to herculean job of using 4k tiny laptop battery Li-ion cells. **

Rick Wagoner became president and chief executive officer in June 2000 and was elected chairman on May 1, 2003. Under his leadership, GM suffered more than $85 billion in losses. In an interview, Wagoner stated that the worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. "It didn't affect profitability," Wagoner claimed, "but it did affect image". In April 2005 Wagoner took back personal control of GM's North American car division from GM North American chairman Bob Lutz and GM North American President Gary Cowger in light of its poor performance.

** firsttruck ** So in April 2005, Bob Lutz got demoted/fired from the GM's NA car division position **

Many years later Lutz did support GM making the Chevrolet Volt gas/battery hybrid (released 2010) but that was over 12 years after first mass-produced hybrid, Toyota Prius hybrid (1997). So just like today, GM was no market leader when it came to scaling production of electrified vehicles.
Toyota Prius Production: December 1997 – present
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

Info also from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Wagoner

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Lutz was and is completely out of touch with today's technology.

Instead of Bob Lutz here are some experts that are relevant today.

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Tesla 'ranks no. 1’ in future capability with autonomy, chip building: Innovation expert Howard Yu.
Howard Yu, IMD Business School LEGO Professor of Management & Innovation, joins Yahoo Finance Live to break down the most future-ready companies in the electric vehicle, payment, and retail sectors.
finance.yahoo.com
December 28, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/tesla-ranks-no-1-future-164821152.html

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Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess to VW workers: 'I'm worried about Wolfsburg' CEO says VW need to be more like Tesla to secure the factory's ** Long-term Future **.
November 04, 2021
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/diess-vw-workers-im-worried-about-wolfsburg

.....
Diess said Tesla is swiftly improving built quality and looks set to achieve a production time of just 10 hours per car at Tesla's Berlin/Gruenheide plant, VW's main electric-car factory in Zwickau needs more than 30 hours per vehicle.

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Ford's Jim Farley On Tesla: "No One Does EV Better" In a recent internal meeting the CEO of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Jim Farley, expressed his admiration of Elon Musk’s company. He asserted that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) builds electric cars better than anyone, and that the Ford needs to respect its rival.
By Cristian Bustos November 9, 2021
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/396208

Ford CEO praises Tesla in internal meeting: ‘No one does electric better’
Fred Lambert - Nov. 8th 2021
https://electrek.co/2021/11/08/ford-ceo-praises-tesla-internal-meeting-no-one-does-ev-better/

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