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I was just reading AutoWeek's article, GM
drawing on the past as it attempts to speed development of
hybrids, and it seems that GM is even more
dysfunctional than I have previously thought.
Saying something like that can be dangerous because, in
America, there are many devout GM followers. While I
criticize GM quite often, it's not because I think GM is
technologically inept. I think GM is corporately inept.
When it comes to technology I think GM is just as capable
as any other auto maker. It's vision where GM is lacking,
and that boils down to corporate leadership.
Having said that, I think that GM is even more
dysfunctional than previously thought because of the
double talk coming out of Detroit. How can GM's Bob Lutz
state that hybrid
cars don't make economic sense when GM's Larry Nitz, a
30-year GM veteran and executive director of GM's global
hybrid powertrains states, "Fuel cell vehicles are
always fuel cell hybrid vehicles because they have battery
packs. The same people that work on the hybrid batteries
work on the fuel cell batteries. The same people that do
electric motor controls for the hybrid system do motor
controls for the fuel cells, too."?
So, the future IS hybrid vehicles, even to GM? So, why the
lies and deception? Is this the model for corporate
America? Is this the model for success?
Perhaps GM is just too old of a company, run by an ancient
belief in the good ole boy's network. The rich might still
run America, but average Americans aren't as blind as we
used to be, and change is inevitable.
Toyota has been making the fuel cell argument in support
of its hybrid vehicles since it started selling the Prius
hybrid car. I've often stated that Toyota is laying
out the fuel cell vehicle future right now, with every
hybrid it puts on the road.
On the other hand, hybrid critics have long stated that
fuel cell vehicles, not hybrid vehicles, are the future.
Yet hybrid technology is integral to the fuel cell
vehicle. Thus, the more work that is done on hybrids -
even gasoline electric hybrids - the faster fuel cell
vehicles become reality.
So, what exactly is the point of
hybrid critics?
Let's be clear about another thing. Pure hydrogen vehicles
ARE NOT the future, and if GM believed, or still believes,
its path to fuel cells would begin with pure hydrogen
vehicles as an interim step to fuel cell vehicles, then GM
really sucks.
Pure hydrogen vehicles just aren't all that fuel
efficient. That's a fact. Ford has noted that the best way
to create fuel efficient hydrogen vehicles would be to
create hydrogen hybrid vehicles. Once again hybrid
technology is a critical component.
Yet, GM's boldest hybrid move to date has been hybrid
lies.
Now I realize that GM has legacy costs that make R&D
more difficult, and that is a serious problem, so serious
that it's going to cost at least 30,000 their jobs.
Nonetheless, GM has a multi-billion dollar yearly
marketing budget. Couldn't some of that have been used for
R&D, especially after 9/11?
Let's face it, in hindsight, GM and Ford should have
started taking fuel efficiency seriously in the 80's and
90's - not just because of gas scares, or political
problems in the Middle East, but because of simple market
share. When does year after year of declining market share
finally make you think, huh, maybe we should try something
different?
Yet, even after 9/11, GM is still barely doing things
different. In many respects, GM's very survival is still
dependent upon gas-guzzling vehicles. High gas prices, too
bad. Foreign oil dependency, too bad. Helping to finance
terrorism, too bad. Polluting the environment, too bad.
That's GM today.
Unfortunately, it's average Americans, not rich
shareholders and corporate executives, that will pay the
real price for this ineptitude.
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