Tesla and General Motors have been quietly duking it out over the past few months. As Chevrolet took the stage to unveil the Chevrolet Bolt concept vehicle at NAIAS 2015, a pure electric vehicle, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, was ready to fire back stating he will render the Bolt “a dud.”
This time, it isn’t actually GM preaching skepticism, but a former exec we all know: Bob Lutz. Lutz recently appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box dismissing Tesla’s entry into the home battery market. He argues, “[the battery] is greatly overvalued because having batteries as backup storage has been around for hundreds of years. I can’t understand the fascination with this.”
Lutz also took a shot at Musk’s habits of ping-ponging around the industry, stating he get’s excited over one project, and moves onto the next, forgetting about his “infinitely small” automotive company.
“The company is also hemorrhaging cash,” he said
It remains to be seen if Musk the dreamer will flourish and, despite Lutz’s criticism, Tesla stock has risen  25 percent since the home battery announcement.
Do you think Lutz is right? Or, is he protecting his personal interests with VIA Xtrux? Talk to us down below.
Comments
The reason he can’t understand is why Musk is where he is and Lutz is where he is. Long story short, yes batteries have been around for a long time but the devil is in the detail, lifespan, efficiency, cost, energy density and etc. Due to economies of scale, Tesla can offer a cheaper more economic battery. (when factoring in lifetime costs). But the real winner here is not the home batteries but the less talked about (by the media) Powerwall batteries for utilities and commercial.
Well Mush has yet to prove his battery, make a profit on the car and even land his rocket. So to be fair lets see if any of these pan out before we crown or deride him. At this point he has only spent some of his and a lot of others including the governments money.
Lets now sit back and just see if any of this really does make money on a monthly and quarterly basis.
I will be fair with Musk on this but in the end if it fails I will also call him on this too. There is a lot of risk here and it will either pay off big or fail miserably.
i consider Maximum Bob to be the best in the business, the Lee Iacocca of today. i know Lee has tasken a hit on his rep but i remember him as the man of the hour, the guy who saved Chrysler ehen it was still Chrysler. Similarly, i think if the lame G.R. Waggoner had not hired Robert Lutz in his last few years, GM would have been in even worse shape when Mary Barra came in to fix Waggoner’s mess. No, i haven’t forgotten you, Roger Smith. So i hold Mr. Lutz in the highest esteem. But in my lowly opininion, i think Apple, Google and Tesla have proved themselves over the years as acute visionaries in the post-industrial generation to earn respect. plus, they’ve hired Detroit guys to help. And despite chevy volt’s groundbreaking technology, it hasn’t been the sales superstar GM thought it might be. But today’s cars and tech require great risks and leaps of faith. i think the chrysler minivans and the original ford mustang are excellent reminders that risk can also have huge rewards. Is timing everything?
i consider Maximum Bob to be the best in the business, the Lee Iacocca of today. i know Lee has taken a hit on his rep but i remember him as the man of the hour, the guy who saved Chrysler when it was still Chrysler. Similarly, i think if the lame G.R. Waggoner had not hired Robert Lutz in his last few years, GM would have been in even worse shape when Mary Barra came in to fix Waggoner’s mess. No, i haven’t forgotten you, Roger Smith. So i hold Mr. Lutz in the highest esteem. But in my lowly opininion, i think Apple, Google and Tesla have proved themselves over the years as acute visionaries in the post-industrial generation to earn respect. plus, they’ve hired Detroit guys to help. And despite chevy volt’s groundbreaking technology, it hasn’t been the sales superstar GM thought it might be. But today’s cars and tech require great risks and leaps of faith. i think the chrysler minivans and the original ford mustang are excellent reminders that risk can also have huge rewards. Is timing everything?