Interviews with Bob Lutz

Bob Lutz in an Exclusive Interview – Watch the video to se the entire interview. Don’t miss this exclusive interview with Bob Lutz  and his own personal report card of the auto industry. Tonight at 10 PM est, you can watch Bob Lutz in a Bob Lutz,

About Bob Lutz

Robert Anthony Lutz (born February 12, 1932) is a Swiss American automotive executive. He served as a top leader of all of the United States Big Three (automobile manufacturers), having been in succession executive vice president (and board member) of Ford Motor Company, president and then vice chairman (and board member) of Chrysler Corporation, and vice chairman of General Motors. – Credit to Wikipedia

Bob Lutz in the Automotive Hall Of Fame

Robert A. Lutz  retired as General Motors vice chairman on May 1, 2010 after a 47 year career in the global automotive industry. Bob may have had his thumbprints on the launch of more cars and trucks than anyone else in the history of the American car business.

Between 1962 and 2010, Bob Lutz worked for a wide variety of organizations, both in North America and abroad. His North American ventures include General Motors , preparing reports, pushing the Pontiac Solstice concept car and championing the import of the Australian Holden Monaro as the Pontiac GTO; Ford, where he initiated the highly successful Ford Explorer; Chrysler, reorganizing product development resulting in the very popular cab-forward LH sedans and the macho new Ram pickup, and conceiving the idea for the Dodge Viper halo sports car; Cunningham Motor Company, which he launched and shortly thereafter padlocked; and a batch of well received products including the Chevrolet Malibu, Cadillac CTS and Saturn Aura, and last but not least, spearheaded the development and production of the Chevrolet Volt.

His European successes include Opel, where he helped sneak an Opel GT concept car into the 1965 Paris Motor Show ( it was a hit, but his GM bosses weren’t pleased!); BMW AG in Germany, claiming credit for development of the first 3-series and 6-series; and Ford of Europe, in charge of operations.

“Sacrificing future products for short-term financial gains is like a farmer eating his seed potatoes instead of planting them,” Lutz once said.

Is Bob Lutz Right about Tesla?

That’s Lutz, after years of beating up Elon Musk and Tesla TSLA, +0.35%, explaining to CNBC this week how he’s warming up to the company but not without hesitation.

“Tesla is not a very profitable company that creates a decent return for shareholders,” he continued. “It is always struggling for profitability, yet it has a huge market cap.”

While Lutz did acknowledge Tesla has “very good technology” and Musk has done a “brilliant job,” he pointed out that the other car behemoths have made similar advances that stack up well.

“Tesla may be giants in the electric car business but annually they [make] 300,000 cars compared to 10 million a year for Toyota, about 8 million a year for GM,” he said. “Fiat Chrysler, Ford and GM combined [make] about 20 million a year, so Tesla is not very big.”

Bob Lutz Interview and Talk About the Future on Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors and the Electric Battery Powered Vehicle.

Former General Motors executive and automotive industry mainstay Bob Lutz has been an outspoken critic of Elon Musk and Tesla.

He previously called the Tesla Model Y crossover “terminally ugly,” and said the company would eventually go bankrupt as legacy automakers release their own EVs and drive down demand for vehicles like the Model S and Model 3.

He also urged Tesla to fire Elon Musk due to his “unpredictable” behavior in a 2018 op-ed for Road & Track, accusing him of steering the company toward a proverbial iceberg at “flank speed.”