The great GM failure: The hybrid car
GM is in trouble. Marketshare
is declining, earnings are diminishing, and their cars
continue to lag foreign cars in reliability, safety, and
overall customer value. And Ford isn't far behind.
Forbes Magazine's Jerry Flint writes in Cruch Time in Detroit "The structure seems designed to keep finance men up and everybody else down. It's impossible to find anyone on the car side, barring Lutz, who can actually get anything done."
Unfortunately, even GM executive Robert Lutz, has downplayed innovative technologies, such as hybrid cars, calling them a marketing success, but a business loser. Lutz is to have us believe that GM, like Toyota, should have spent $1 billion creating a line of hybrids only as a marketing ploy to give the appearance of environmental concern.
Interesting marketing ploy Toyota has created with its Prius hybrid car. Demand continues to grow, and at least 100,000 will be produced for 2005 alone. That might not be a blockbuster hit, but it sure is interesting. More important, it provides momentum for Toyota's growing line of hybrids.
Early demand for both the Lexus RX400h hybrid SUV and the Toyota Highlander hybrid has been so great that Toyota has had to push their release dates back.
In fact, the first half of this year's intended Lexus hybrid SUV production has already been pre-ordered and it still doesn't go on sale for a month. Based on early previews, this will probably be the hottest luxury vehicle on the market in terms of performance, safety, style, and intelligence.
Next comes the Highlander hybrid this summer. Currently, the Ford Escape hybrid is the only hybrid SUV on the market, but it was built on leased Toyota hybrid technology. Toyota's hybrid SUV will be built on proprietary technology, and this should enable Toyota to offer a pricing discount over Ford - if wanted. Such a move probably won't be cost-effective this year, as demand is almost certain to dwarf supply.
Yet GM hybrids are, minimally, a couple years away. Still, GM has a great opportunity, as does Ford, with trucks and larger SUVs, but the longer they wait the less their opportunity.
GM has to acknowledge that neither hydrogen, nor fuel cells, can arrive quickly enough to save either Ford or GM. Both must lead in the automotive technology of today, not tomorrow. Trucks and SUVs have buoyed American automakers for decades, but after decades, the technology is little changed.
This must end.
Hybrid F150s, Silverados, Tahoes and Yukons, if offered today, would create not only immense buzz, but sales, and it would give many American consumers something in which to believe. Many Americans want to do something to help the environment and end foreign oil-dependency, they just want to do it in a truck, especially an American-built truck.
Saturn isn't going to save GM, only automotive leadership can do that, and that will require immense change.
Will GM be up to it?
Forbes Magazine's Jerry Flint writes in Cruch Time in Detroit "The structure seems designed to keep finance men up and everybody else down. It's impossible to find anyone on the car side, barring Lutz, who can actually get anything done."
Unfortunately, even GM executive Robert Lutz, has downplayed innovative technologies, such as hybrid cars, calling them a marketing success, but a business loser. Lutz is to have us believe that GM, like Toyota, should have spent $1 billion creating a line of hybrids only as a marketing ploy to give the appearance of environmental concern.
Interesting marketing ploy Toyota has created with its Prius hybrid car. Demand continues to grow, and at least 100,000 will be produced for 2005 alone. That might not be a blockbuster hit, but it sure is interesting. More important, it provides momentum for Toyota's growing line of hybrids.
Early demand for both the Lexus RX400h hybrid SUV and the Toyota Highlander hybrid has been so great that Toyota has had to push their release dates back.
In fact, the first half of this year's intended Lexus hybrid SUV production has already been pre-ordered and it still doesn't go on sale for a month. Based on early previews, this will probably be the hottest luxury vehicle on the market in terms of performance, safety, style, and intelligence.
Next comes the Highlander hybrid this summer. Currently, the Ford Escape hybrid is the only hybrid SUV on the market, but it was built on leased Toyota hybrid technology. Toyota's hybrid SUV will be built on proprietary technology, and this should enable Toyota to offer a pricing discount over Ford - if wanted. Such a move probably won't be cost-effective this year, as demand is almost certain to dwarf supply.
Yet GM hybrids are, minimally, a couple years away. Still, GM has a great opportunity, as does Ford, with trucks and larger SUVs, but the longer they wait the less their opportunity.
GM has to acknowledge that neither hydrogen, nor fuel cells, can arrive quickly enough to save either Ford or GM. Both must lead in the automotive technology of today, not tomorrow. Trucks and SUVs have buoyed American automakers for decades, but after decades, the technology is little changed.
This must end.
Hybrid F150s, Silverados, Tahoes and Yukons, if offered today, would create not only immense buzz, but sales, and it would give many American consumers something in which to believe. Many Americans want to do something to help the environment and end foreign oil-dependency, they just want to do it in a truck, especially an American-built truck.
Saturn isn't going to save GM, only automotive leadership can do that, and that will require immense change.
Will GM be up to it?
