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The
'Prius Effect'? Only to those with the 'loser effect'
Wednesday,
January 31, 2007
GM
saw a joke in the Prius, Toyota saw the future
The 'Prius effect'. That's
what competitors have labeled the success that hybrid
cars have provided for Toyota. Boy, it's sadly comical
how losers look for excuses in everything, and the Prius
effect is a prime example of that 'loser effect'.
"We didn't appreciate the image value of
hybrids," concedes GM's research and development
chief, Larry Burns in a BusinessWeek
interview. "We missed that."
That's not the only thing GM missed!
This 'Prius effect' statement has also been echoed by both
GM head Rick Wagoner and by GM product guru, Bob Lutz.
Even worse, Bob Lutz claimed that GM could have beat
Toyota to the Prius, if they had used a fraction of their
billion dollar marketing budget for this purpose. Instead,
GM spent the money advertising the virtues of its
foreign-oil-dependency-increasing gas-guzzlers.
Obviously, a much better investment, at least in terms of
"image value" at that time.
Even worse, American tax payers gave the Big 3 as much as
a billion dollars in incentives to develop such a vehicle.
Instead, we got the Iraq War.
GM apparently still fails to realize that Toyota didn't
develop the Prius hybrid car for media hype or "image
value". Toyota built the Prius because it's a step
towards the future, it's part of their Kaizen-culture to
be driven by efficiency, not "image value".
Unlike GM, Toyota is more focused on reality, rather than
trying to use the media to influence the perception of
reality into something unreal, but profitable to GM.
Like GM, BW states, "There's an ironic side to all
this. In the U.S., GM sells more models that get more than
30 mpg than any other carmaker."
Yet, Toyota - overall - is still a more fuel efficient
automaker than is GM. That's simply a fact. Moreover, most
of GM's 30 models aren't great sellers. Additionally, they
achieve 30 mpg on the highway. That might work in much of
the Midwest, but it doesn't work on the coasts. City
driving is key, not highway driving. In urban conditions
GM's 30 models are much less fuel efficient. Since not
only congestion, but increasing congestion, is the future
for most Americans, 30 mpg on the highway doesn't mean as
much in reality, even though it has good "image
value".
Inevitably, Toyota isn't talking about what it is going to
do in the future, Toyota has already taken a step into the
future with its Hybrid Synergy Drive. While there has been
a lot of hoopla regarding the Volt
hybrid concept, Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive ramps up
to fuel cells just as the Volt's E Flex Drive does, and
the Hybrid Synergy Drive can also evolve into plug-in
hybrids along the way (more
on the E Flex Drive versus the Hybrid Synergy Drive).
Just because GM announces the possibility of plug-in
hybrids doesn't mean they've taken a step ahead of
Toyota. There are ALREADY Toyota Prius plug-in hybrids on
the road today. Toyota just doesn't think they are cost
effective yet. Based on the success of Toyota's Hybrid
Synergy Drive, I certainly wouldn't bet that GM will beat
Toyota to plug-ins - at least not commercially successful
plug-in hybrids.
Consequently, the term 'Prius effect' is just marketing
jargon created by people more focused on perception than
on technology. Too often, those using the term Prius
effect are simply suffering from the excuse-making loser
effect.
posted
by Dahcredyns at
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