FastLane

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

I need to clear up something that appeared over the weekend in one of America’s major remaining newspapers, The Washington Post. In a very long, very prominent front-page article about General Motors and the Chevrolet Volt, the Post reporter painted a picture of me and GM that I can only describe as incredibly inaccurate.

The reporter said that we are “ambivalent” about the Volt, largely because it flies in the face of what he perceives me to be all about, namely speed, horsepower and burning rubber - and fossil fuels. In fact, he neatly expanded this ambivalence angle to describe GM, and Detroit as a whole, as the auto industry faces a new future.

Look, I know how it works. A reporter has a great idea for a story, with a terrific angle, and, even if the facts indicate otherwise, he can’t help but try to shoehorn the story into the angle. It’s just too good an idea!

Unfortunately for The Washington Post, the angle in this case was a preconceived notion that simply isn’t true. And they should know better - all they needed to do was walk down the hall and ask their very fine automotive writer Warren Brown for the truth. (Incidentally, Warren’s piece buried in the very same June 7 issue of the Post, “GM Likely To Have the Last Laugh at Critics,” was filled with truth and the type of keen insights on which he has built a career.)

Let me say this clearly: There is no ambivalence on my part - or on the part of anyone at GM - toward the Chevy Volt. None. Zero.

How many times since the concept car’s debut in 2007 have I said (and been widely quoted as saying) that this is the most exciting program I have worked on in my entire career? I meant it every time I said it - anyone in the press who’s spent any time at all covering the auto industry knows I don’t do “lip service.”

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You might remember a couple of weeks back, we published a post from Bob Lutz about David Letterman’s misunderstanding of the Chevy Volt. Dave had made some underinformed statements about the Volt on a previous show that had us “all charged up,” so Bob offered some of the information we thought was missing, offered Dave the chance to come to Detroit to drive the test Volts, and offered to go on Dave’s show to explain the car in person.

Dave was good enough to take Bob up on his offer, and so Bob was a guest on the Letterman show last night. We thought it went pretty well; Dave asked fair questions, and Bob gave the honest answers. Most of all, we’re glad that Bob had the chance to show America this car and talk about its promise. We’re all very passionate about the Volt here at GM, and when we see wrong information about the car being bandied about, we’ll take the opportunity to correct it. A big thanks to Dave for giving us the opportunity; here’s Bob’s appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman. - Christopher Barger, Director Social Media

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

I don’t know if you happened to catch David Letterman Wednesday night. Frankly, I didn’t, nor did many of my colleagues at GM. But you can bet the clip of Dave interviewing Elon Musk of Tesla Motors has certainly made the rounds here, and has people up in arms, particularly the Chevrolet Volt team.

Mr. Letterman made some gratuitously derogatory remarks about the Volt’s range, calling it “insane” and “ridiculous,” and in general appeared woefully uninformed about the Volt. For one thing, he said its 40-mile range wouldn’t get him down the driveway to pick up the newspaper.

Now, if he is that uninformed, I must point out that it’s not his fault, it’s ours. We should do a better job of making sure that Dave and everyone else who is in position to comment on national TV about our products has the right information, whether they use that information or not. Perhaps if we’d hired Drew Barrymore to be the spokesperson for the vehicle we’d have commanded more of his attention. Regardless, we’d like to rectify the situation.

I would like to personally invite Dave to come learn more about the Volt, including the hugely important but unmentioned-by-him fact that its range is 40 purely electric miles plus several hundred more miles thanks to its range-extender. Dave may drive more than 40 miles a day on his commute from the palatial Connecticut estate, but about 80 percent of Americans don’t. And those people could conceivably drive the Volt every day and never use a drop of gasoline.

I’d like Dave to drive a Volt test mule and see for himself. And I’d be happy to appear on his show, like Mr. Musk had the opportunity to do, and set the record straight on the Volt and its promise. If it happens to be Stupid Pet Tricks night, I have a swan that would be a hit!

Let me say one more thing: If I were to compile a Top Ten List of things General Motors needs to worry about at this moment in time, rebuking comments by David Letterman would not be among them, as you might guess. But that doesn’t mean we can sit idly by while misinformation spreads, especially when it’s disseminated by a respected “car guy.” That really got us, if you will, charged up.

So that’s why we’re taking a moment on a Friday to let you know we heard what was said, we don’t agree with it, and we’d like the opportunity to put things right. Simple as that.

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

By now you may have heard the news that I have given up the duties of leading General Motors global product development.

Please note that I relinquish these responsibilities secure in the knowledge that the guiding philosophy of pursuit of absolute product excellence is now firmly embedded in the organization. That unquestionable fact made a very difficult decision much easier for me.

I feel very comfortable handing over the keys to Tom Stephens, and his new role makes perfect sense given that GM is preparing to integrate its Global Powertrain Operations into the Global Product Development organization. Tom will do a great job ensuring the continued excellence of GM’s new cars, trucks and crossovers, and he has a great team already in place to help, led by Ed Welburn, Jim Queen, John Smith and Jon Lauckner.

There has been speculation that I would stay until the debut of the Chevrolet Volt next year. When I do retire at the end of this year, the Volt program will be well on its way to launch and I’ll feel the same sense of pride and accomplishment that the entire Volt team will feel when the first ones are silently rolling off the assembly line.

So I’ll be around the rest of the year, helping with the transition and acting as senior advisor to Rick Wagoner, and I’m sure you’ll read further updates in this space about how it’s going. Most importantly, I remain as confident as ever in the future of General Motors and the continued excellence of its products. And you’ll see even more evidence of that as the next few years unfold.

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

During these unprecedented times, the familiarity of yet another holiday season upon us is particularly welcome.  Although there is much work to be done, we’ll all be glad to have a moment or two to reflect on what’s important, and on the tasks that lay ahead.

I hope that you and yours have a terrific and relaxing holiday season.  If you do get time to relax, I’d like to suggest a bit of light reading.  It’s not your traditional holiday reading list, I’ll admit, but it is some pretty important material.

The sheer volume of words written about the auto industry in the past month or two is enough to fill the Library of Congress.  (Yes, I’m employing irony.)  Some of the material generated has been ill-informed and off the mark.  Some have used the same old and outdated anti-Detroit rhetoric and bias we’ve been seeing for years.

But some of the coverage has been quite the opposite… enlightening, informative, and, so to speak, on the money.  Some of these stories say exactly what we’ve been trying to get across to the American people and their elected representatives.  Some of them say, well, let’s just refer to what I said in response to one of Lou Dobbs’ comments when I appeared on his CNN program, “I would never dare to say what you just said, but I think you said it all.”

Please take a moment to read some of these very important stories, and pass them along.  Happy holidays and Happy 2009.  See you next year.

• The Washington Post
  Perceptions of Detroit Are Miles From Reality
  By Warren Brown
• The New York Times
  Left and Right, Piling on
  By William Kristol
• The Wall Street Journal
  The Bailout That Won’t
  By Holman W. Jenkins
• The Washington Post
  A Bridge for the Carmakers
  By Jeffrey D. Sachs

In his usual shoot-from-the-hip style, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz discussed GM’s liquidity crisis, the need for federal bridge loans and the future of the domestic automotive industry during an exclusive interview with CNBC. - Will Stewart, blog editor.

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

It’s been a historic week for us, and I don’t mean in Washington. And let me just say upfront that I know there is a lot of talk online about that subject. But I am not going to comment here about any government loans or hearings or GM’s financial situation — just like I wouldn’t engage you in conversation about it if I ran into you in the produce aisle. We have other places online for that conversation, such as gmfactsandfiction.com.

I would like to give you a brief update, however, on the progress we’re making on the Chevrolet Volt, and I would characterize it as great progress.

We have moved on to the next phase of engineering development for the vehicle. That means that we’ve moved from the Volt test mules using previous-generation Malibu bodies (affectionately known as “MaliVolts”) to test vehicles using vehicles from our next-generation global compact car architecture.

That architecture will not only spawn vehicles like the Volt, but also the Chevrolet Cruze and others like it. And I have to say, after driving it with the Volt system placed within, I feel terrific about the driving dynamics of that architecture. It instantly feels several price classes higher than what it actually is, due to the level of refinement.

The relative quiet and absence of vibration stand out, among other things. The chassis integrity felt outstanding to me… the steering response was good, the brakes were good, the turn-in was good and so on. I think it needs very little in terms of additional tuning. So I have very high hopes for when we get some test vehicles running with the actual Volt production body aboard.

As for the powertrain and propulsion system, I couldn’t be more pleased. It was 30 degrees and windy and flurrying. We started with about a 60-percent charge on the battery pack, to see how it would perform and when the engine would kick on.

To my delight, we went about 19 silent, electrically powered miles before that engine engaged. And when it did, it was so quiet and non-jarring that they had to tell me it had come on, because I wasn’t looking at the tach. Granted, many years in airplane cockpits have taken their toll on my hearing, but still, I can say with impunity that the engine was quiet and not at all intrusive in terms of noise.

Right now, the engine is tuned rather aggressively so that once it did kick on, it tended to cut in and out quite a bit at low speeds. But we will find the right balance to address that — that’s why we’re doing all this development work! I know there were concerns about what it would be like when the engine kicks on, whether it would excite the structure and cause all kinds of vibrations and such, but I have to say it wasn’t an issue. It was wonderfully masked, and will continue to improve as testing continues.

I ended up putting in about 30 miles behind the wheel, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the vehicle, the development, or the team behind it. And they will continue to work round the clock to further refine the Volt and get it on the road — and in your hands — year after next.

And be sure to check out chevy.com for more information about Chevrolet’s electric car program.

Yesterday, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz spoke Monday during the Public Relations Society of America’s International Conference in Detroit. While Bob’s remarks have more to do with public relations and effective messaging than with General Motors, he does make some interesting points about communications and how it relate to the auto industry. - Will Stewart, blog editor

Vice Chairman Bob Lutz discusses the high quality of today’s GM cars and trucks – and issues a unique challenge to compare our vehicles to our competitors’ – in today’s installment of our “The Case for GM” video series. As always, please let us know your thoughts and check back regularly for responses from our execs and other members of our team. You can find a transcript of Bob’s video here. - Christopher Barger, Director, Global Communications Technology

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

What a week it’s been so far …

First, we had Tuesday’s GMNext centennial celebration and global broadcast, culminating in the reveal of the production Chevrolet Volt, which was a terrific experience. Then Wednesday came an experience I must confess was like no other I’ve had in my career — I was interviewed on The Colbert Report.

I will start off by stating for the record that Stephen Colbert is a comic genius, absolutely manic but absolutely hilarious. He used to do GM Goodwrench TV commercials for us a few years back, FYI. I’d like to thank him and everyone at the show for the opportunity to be a guest. The whole thing was a great time, from the moment we arrived at the studio.

It was an unusual interview, to be sure! As the interviewee, you must understand that he is trying to extract meaningful information, while remaining “in character” as a pompous, self-admiring but largely clueless talk-show host. Satire is one of my favorite things, and that show has it down as well as any.

I was warned not to try to counter his humor with offerings of my own: “He’ll inevitably win. You should just smile, and play it straight.”

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