Bob Lutz and his latest Tesla comments...

[Jopo43]

Why do we care he ran a Dino car company and poorly at that......

 

[Olds442]

dude is more bought and sold than your average congressman.

the secret sauce is simple. design.

the best designs out of detroit in the last 10 years have been retro cars. that's it.

 

[Chickenlittle]

So what has Lutz done lately other than predict the downfall of tesla for at least 4 Yes? Well look at viamotors he was spokesperson for it and became chairman of board 2014. Last Twitter message from company in 2016. Was to produce electric truck/van in 2014 but none ever produced. WS to get to 50,000 a year production In 2015 I would never use him as a prognosticator

 

[cwerdna]

Bob Lutz is at it again:
Tesla is 'headed for the graveyard,' predicts former GM exec Bob Lutz

 

[Aieukl378]

I literally spit out my coffee when I read this:

"Tesla has no … tech advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage. No advantages whatsoever," he said(Lutz).

 

[Barklikeadog]

Crimony, even the most haters of haters will admit that the charging network, battery production, name recognition, customer satisfaction are advantages.

 

[tander]

So what has Lutz done lately other than predict the downfall of tesla for at least 4 Yes? Well look at viamotors he was spokesperson for it and became chairman of board 2014. Last Twitter message from company in 2016. Was to produce electric truck/van in 2014 but none ever produced. WS to get to 50,000 a year production In 2015 I would never use him as a prognosticator

I literally spit out my coffee when I read this:

"Tesla has no … tech advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage. No advantages whatsoever," he said(Lutz).

Bob Lutz is at it again:
Tesla is 'headed for the graveyard,' predicts former GM exec Bob Lutz

What really surprised me is he was talking about GM taking losses on it's electric cars and making up for it with gas cars. I knew that was the plan with the volt to be a compliance car, but that's not really the plan for the other cars they plan to do in the future is it?

 

[tander]

Serious about the question btw, GM isn't really planning taking losses on all of it's future electric cars right?

 

[Skotty]

Tesla's secret sauce is caring about the future of humanity, and the inspiration that cultivates, while also doing what they have to do to stay in business. So many people still don't understand that.

Typical Business:
* Business objective: Make a profit
* Product objective: Make a profit
* Result: Lack of vision, ethical compromise

Green Business:
* Business objective: None
* Product objective: Improve humanity
* Result: Going out of business sale.

Tesla:
* Business objective: Stay in business (sometimes this means make money, other times it means invest)
* Product objective: Improve humanity.
* Result: Humans actually did something right for a change.

 

[Driver Dave]

Lutz = NUTZ

I like that Elon retweeted it.

 

[PhatCat]

Serious about the question btw, GM isn't really planning taking losses on all of it's future electric cars right?

They weren't planning on going bankrupt either.

 

[Darmie]

Does he not have an interest in an electric car company that he started or is funding?

 

[Merrill]

Lutz is a Putz

 

[Darmie]

Does he not have an interest in an electric car company that he started or is funding?

Here it is.
Via Motors (Bob Lutz Startup) Enters Joint Venture with Volvo/Geely | CleanTechnica

 

[traxila]

Bob Lutz is our new John Petersen.

When he comes out aggressively about TSLA going under, time to buy heavy.

Contrarian indicator indeed.

 

[SSedan]

If the domestic manufacturers were so brilliant they would not have stopped building nice RWD sedans handing the Germans a nice market for premium cars. Even Subaru I remember when they were really rare, last year the Forester sold 177k the Impala 75k. Domestics have a long history of walking away from markets only to open them for competition to dominate. I know those might be odd to compare but wife drives an Impala and a friend has the Forester so they were top of head choices.

I haven't looked at actual import numbers but growing up I seem to remember a rise in German cars coinciding with domestics killing useful fullsize cars in favor of FWD ecoboxes and trucks

 

[alloverx]

Bob has his moments both good and bad. He certainly has some auto experience but sometimes you need an outsider to shake things up aka Tesla. Often the domestics take the short term view plus their quality reputation hurts them even if now their quality is more or less the same. Next 6 months is crunch time for Tesla.

 

[Buggle]

Serious about the question btw, GM isn't really planning taking losses on all of it's future electric cars right?

What future EV's does GM have? I haven't heard anything beyond the Bolt.

 

[tander]

What future EV's does GM have? I haven't heard anything beyond the Bolt.

Is GM about to get serious about electric cars?

 

[Buggle]

Is GM about to get serious about electric cars?

Ok. That's pretty generic tho --

Additionally, GM is also committing to 20 more all-electric cars globally by 2023, as well as an on-going effort to reduce the fuel consumption of its traditional fossil fuel-powered vehicles. It's all part of what GM says is its "zero emissions, zero crashes, zero congestion" vision for the future.

I mean 20 EV's in the next 5 years and we don't have any details on any of them? Sounds fishy to me. I feel somewhat that a lot of manufacturers are saying things like this cause they think it's the thing to say, and they worry about getting left behind if they aren't saying things like this. But what does it actually mean? Until they're actually building cars, the above is simply marketing b.s.

Iirc Volkswagen & Volvo have committed to electrifying their entire lineup over the next decade (or something like that). VW has begun securing battery and I believe cobalt sources, and Volvo is Chinese owned so more or less must go electric per Chinese govt policy. So when these two say they're going electric it makes sense. But GM? They're still anti-selling the Bolt and even at that they can't built enough to supply demand. And as the author pointed out, there's slim details on what their production ramp actually means.

Looks like a lot of b.s. to me.