Whether or not you support General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, one thing is certain. His words make headlines and he speaks his mind with little concern for reaction from others.
In his latest ramblings, Mr. Lutz has gone on record stating that GM will likely always lose money on its hybrid vehicle offerings and he added that hybrid vehicle will never penetrate the market beyond a 10% market share.
It should be noted that right now hybrids only account for about a 3% market share, but that numbers has seen a slow but steady increase.
According to Lutz, strict U.S. regulations essentially force automakers to produce hybrid vehicles. Though as he says, GM loses money on every hybrid product. The lost revenue on hybrids will force GM to increase costs of other vehicles to make up for loses sustained.
The statement by Lutz may be true in the case of GM, who virtually sells no hybrid products. For comparison's sake, GM sold less than 500 hybrid vehicles in January which accounts for only 3% of total U.S. hybrid sales for the money. Whereas Toyota has reported sales of 12,190 hybrids in the same month.
Lutz believes that the costs of hybrid products are simply too high and consumers are unwilling to pay the additional amount for a hybrid vehicle regardless of whether or not they want such a vehicle.
Many of the words spoken by Mr. Lutz may indeed have a grain of truth to them, however he is also a huge supporter of the Chevy Volt which is after all a hybrid vehicle, right?
Source: Edmunds.com
