Monday, February 16, 2009
Another Modest Sign of Modernization at GM
GM's retiring product chief symbolized the auto industry's environmental defiance.
By Peter Fairley
GM's outgoing product chief, Bob Lutz. Source: GM.
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Many in the green-car movement are cheering the announcement that Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman, will retire at the end of 2009. Environmental Defense Fund automotive guru John DeCicco celebrated the news on HybridCars.com last weekend, calling Lutz part of a "cohort of corporate leaders who rose to the top eerily disconnected from the parallel rise of environmental values in American culture."
However, a speech given last week by Hyundai North America's CEO--described as a "wake-up call" by the Detroit News--reinforces the impression that changing the industry's environmental perspective will require a much broader shift in personnel.
Lutz earned the ire of the environmentally inclined for two reasons. As product-development chief, he contributed to GM's reliance on ever larger and less fuel-efficient trucks. And he made headlines with his contempt for the theory of climate change. Dallas-based D magazine quoted a private conversation with journalists just one year ago in which Lutz called global warming a "total crock of ****."
Lutz added, according to D, that "my opinion doesn't matter." But how could that be, with GM gearing up to woo environmentally minded consumers with advanced vehicles such as the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt? Such comments reverberate louder still within the industry itself, signaling to junior engineers that an environment-be-damned ethic endures in Detroit's boardrooms.
Hyundai's acting CEO, John Krafcik, provided a measure of the pervasiveness of Lutzian environmental skepticism in his keynote speech last week at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. Krafcik called for the auto industry to embrace improved fuel economy in spite of misgivings about the reality of global warming:
There's really no point in arguing about the veracity of climate change when you stop to consider the finite supply of oil, and the turmoil that our present consumption habit is fueling in the Middle East. It's abundantly clear that improved fuel economy makes sense for our industry and for our country.
Krafcik said that it was "in this regard" that Hyundai pledged to achieve a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2015--five years faster than the pace of improvements likely to be mandated by the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard.
The speech may not be a rousing call to save the planet, but at least Hyundai's leaders are seeking to inspire action. Along with Honda's and Chrysler's proactive preparations to meet the tougher California standards (now under consideration by Obama's EPA), Hyundai's goal suggests that a more progressive cohort of automotive leaders is possible.
Tom Stephens, GM's power-train chief and chair of its Energy and Environment Strategy Board, takes over for Lutz in April as vice chairman for global product development.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
Pjazzz
02/18/2009
Posts:14
As for the why(s)
* maybe he doesn't need the money. His retirement packages from the Navy, Chrysler and Social Security will make him pretty comfy in his waning years
*maybe he doesnt want to work a a dollar a year like the Feds want him to
* maybe he feels that Global Warming is still a crock, but lets face it - the planet has been warming since the end of the last ice age. Alexander the Great's fabled sea port now sits under 50 feet of water, so the oceans have been rising for quite a while.
* Maybe the Volt was the capstone in a career that spanned a lot of years
* Maybe he's tired and wants to go fishing.
* Maybe Lutz is the sacrificial lamb for the rest of GM's management
* maybe (probably) we'll never really know the full answer.
mkogrady
02/18/2009
Posts:198
If you add to that the possibility that we could be adversely affecting the environment in a profound way, even not being sure about it, it makes the industry leaders of the last three decades look, at best, inane.
It is very safe to say and patently obvious that there has been no foresight and no vision in the American auto industry for over 3 decades. If Mr. Lutz's departure represents the possibility of actual foresight becoming important to the auto industry, hooray. It is about time.
UpComing
02/18/2009
Posts:3
I mourn the descent of TR into a cheap religious tabloid.
IggyDalrympl...
02/19/2009
Posts:9
How can you say this? Bob Lutz is the man who got GM to make the Volt, the first EV that actually makes sense (4 passenger/range extended).
Bob Lutz did this in spite of the fact GM is one of the most bureaucratic companies in the world.
If anything, Bob has made GM more modern, not less.
Look, and while we're at it: Bob Lutz also hit the nail on the head when he said that if we really want fuel efficient cars we should raise the gas tax.
Take a good look around: All manufacturers' cars are bigger now. The current BMW 3-series is as big as the 5-series of the 80s, today's Honda Civic is bigger than a mid-80s Accord. Toyotas have gotten bigger and bigger too.
Fuel efficiency will go up only if we are willing to make it a nationwide policy and pay for it through taxes and tax credits.
mister nomer
03/01/2009
Posts:1