Bob Lutz will appear on Letterman next week to refute Volt claims
Two weeks after late night comedian David Letterman lashed out at the Chevy Volt's 40-mile EV range during an interview with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, General Motors is counter-attacking with former Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Next Wednesday night, Lutz will appear on Letterman's Late Show with the Volt show car. Lutz is generally pretty good at holding his own in interviews, but it will be very interesting to see how he rebukes Letterman on his own turf. The latter generally keeps a pretty tight rein and controls the action, just as he did with Musk. If Lutz is smart, he'll emphasize that he brought the show car instead of one of the Cruze-based mules because those are being intensively tested back in Michigan getting ready for a production launch next year. The Tesla Model S that Musk brought with him is also little more than a show car at this point, and most development has been suspended until Tesla raises more money.
Clarification: When I say most Model S development is on hold, I mean most, not all. When I spoke with CEO Elon Musk in January he acknowledged that spending on Model S had been cut from 30 percent of Tesla's resources to only 10 percent. Before leaving the company, last former SVP Darryl Siry told us that essentially all work other powertrain development had come to halt. Some work is ongoing since they did finish the show car, but the bulk of it depends on raising cash. Meanwhile GM tells us that the Volt program is essentially the only one at the company that has not seen any significant cuts.
[Source: General Motors, Source Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
adam1drift 1:09PM (5/15/2009)
why BOB? I dont get it?
the question is, Is Letterman gonna ask him about his stance on Global Warming?
that would be for an intresting segment....
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Alex 1:13PM (5/15/2009)
They got Bob to do it because he will take no crap from Letterman and has no problem checking people back into place. I don't watch Letterman, but i'll be tuning in for this one.
Coolio 1:26PM (5/15/2009)
Bob,
The point you MUST get across is that the ICE never powers the wheels adn is only there to recharge the batteries. Many think that when the batteries are low, the engine then drives the wheels, which is why everyone thinks it's a "lawnmower" when the batteries have lost the charge.
Products have been duds due to public mis-understanding.
notYou 1:43PM (5/15/2009)
Does anybody even watch letterman any longer? The novelty is long gone and it's obvious he's a putz. Heck, even O'reilly makes him look stupid.
Considering he was [cough] off the air [cough] during the writer's strike, it's not like he even writes his own material. He's just a teleprompter delivery man.
John 1:49PM (5/15/2009)
"He's just a teleprompter delivery man."
That's good enough to get into the White House nowadays......
Nick 1:11PM (5/15/2009)
I don't expect Tesla to be around in 5 years. For the avg family the Volt is a much better choice.
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Kumar 1:18PM (5/15/2009)
I have my doubts that the average family would even consider this. They're looking at mini-vans/suvs, where this will probably appeal to a whole different set.
It's too bad the price is so jacked up. Now we'll have to see if/when VW's twindrive shows up with a similar e-only range and how much of a premium you'll have to pay.
zamafir 2:10PM (5/15/2009)
Kumar has a point, the average American family is struggling to pay the bills right now and will not be buying a well beyond average $40,000+ car after subsidies. Which, oddly enough, is the exact reason the prius was sold at a loss during MkI. Not so the average person could afford it, but so it would be palatable enough to create a market, Toyota understanding it is unreasonable to expect the customer to bear the full brunt of a new segment buster.
Best of luck to GM's spin man, they need all the positive press they can get if this vapor is ever to make it to market.
asuka 2:51PM (5/15/2009)
"They need all the positive press they can get if this vapor is ever to make it to market."
Translation:
"Waaah - I don't like plug-ins because they conflict with my reactionary politics!"
You think the Volt is "vapor"? Seeing as the car IS going into mass production, you must be using a different definition of "vaporware" than the rest of the world.
zamafir 8:45PM (5/15/2009)
With GM teetering on bankruptcy it might be prudent not to put all your eggs in the 'volt's definitely going to reach production' basket right now. Additionally, It's not technically a plug in hybrid, it's a range extended electric vehicle. I own a pair of hybrids, I think plug in hybrids and range extended electric cars are great ideas, though if posturing and projecting that my valid skepticism is based on some sort of anti "plug in" (which this car is NOT) is what tickles your fancy, more power to you.
asuka 9:29PM (5/15/2009)
See this?:
http://gm-volt.com/galleries/photo/3220975283/2011-Chevrolet-Volt-Production-Show-Car.html
That's what's often referred to as a "plug".
In addition to reviewing the definition of "vaporware", you may also want to look up the differences between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you think that a GM Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a possibility, you know even less about US politics than you do about the future of the American auto industry.
Todd 1:13PM (5/15/2009)
I hope Letterman brings up that GM has already been given billions and billions of tax payer cash, while Tesla has asked for, and *not* received, 400 million in Federal funds.
Telsa - real car, already in production, sales on the books.
Volt - only two non-production based test mules exist, used so far as 1) A threat ( "Give us billions or we'll sell the Volt to Exxon like we did the EV-1!" ) to get more tax payer cash. 2) as damage control from the corporate jet PR disaster.
Love to see Maximum Bob squirm on that!
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chad.dawkins 1:19PM (5/15/2009)
Yeah they have a real car that they haven't even made 1000 of them of yet. How long has the Tesla Roadster been out now?
shethj 1:24PM (5/15/2009)
GM sells more cars each day than Tesla will sell in the next year. Please dont act like Tesla is a real car company. It took GM about 100 years to ask for a gov loan. It took Tesla about 2 years. They are a joke.
letstakeawalk 1:43PM (5/15/2009)
If Tesla is a real car company, could you please tell me where their production line is?
Tesla is an engineering/marketing company that sells cars built by Lotus. If Lotus were to stop building them, Tesla would shrivel up and disappear.
Ken 2:10PM (5/15/2009)
GM's made more street legal electric cars than Tesla has.
d4rez 9:44PM (5/15/2009)
I really don't understand why Todd's post has such a poor rating and such a string of negative replies. He makes a valid point with regards to the immaterial nature of the Volt project.
Granted, the GM bailout and the Tesla funding loan do have a spurious relationship, but I don't understand why it isn't fair to point out that the Volt may never see the light of day. GM is due for a bond payment on June 1st that they will never make, their bankruptcy is being touted by many experts as likely. No offence to any of you, but what makes you more qualified to call against them? Of course, if any of you do have the necessaries and do have some further insight into the GM situation, then I'd love to hear it: Perhaps you're a high ranking executive within GM or even a governmental insider close to the situation?
If GM does go bankrupt, it won't neccesarily be a smooth process, Chrysler has shown us that. They will emerge (if they do) in a recession with billions of dollars of loans. At this point, will they choose to develop and market something as yet unproven to them? Or will they rely on the Cash Cows that they have in their extant range of somewhat competitive vehicles. My theory is one of two things will happen:
1. GM will perpetually claim the Volt is in development and then quietly drop it when a convenient time can be identified.
or
2. They will sell it as a green Halo car designed only for small volume production and likely at a loss. It wouldn't surprise me if in order to kill it off, GM used some of the tactics employed to such great effect with the EV1/ZEVM.
As for Tesla, dismissing it as not being "a real car company" is surely a witless suggestion. Yes they may sell in low volumes but, they are a selling to a small segment of a niche market. Furthermore, they are using a "price skimming" strategy in a weak global market. With this in mind I can't see a reason for such negativity or to doubt that Tesla is achieving it's own objectives, despite ostensibly low production volumes.
Having Letterman and Musk share the same set was a horror I never wish to relive. However, are they really worse than a man who does not believe in Global Warming, talking about an electric car which, may never exist no matter how good it is in principle.
letstakeawalk 3:21PM (5/16/2009)
@ D4ez
Todd is demonstrably wrong, which is why he is receiving negative rankings.
"Volt - only two non-production based test mules exist..."
Over 30 Volt mules have been built.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/tag/chevy+volt+mule/
Todd's opinion of how the Volt mules have been employed, "1) A threat ( "Give us billions or we'll sell the Volt to Exxon like we did the EV-1!" ) to get more tax payer cash. 2) as damage control from the corporate jet PR disaster." is certainly subjective, but also demonstrably wrong.
Chevy has never threatened to sell the Volt to anyone. Chevy exhibited the Volt mules long before the jet brouhaha, not just as a response.
TBlueMax 1:13PM (5/15/2009)
@Sam Abuelsamid: "keeps a pretty tight rain and controls the action"
You could go with reign, or even rein (in the literal sense), but rain just isn't working.
I'm gunning for Neff's job as Editor-in-Chief.
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Sam Watson 1:31PM (5/15/2009)
there you go *raining* on their parade... ;P
I caught that too. hehe