It’s no secret Bob Lutz isn’t a fan of Tesla’s business model. Once again he joined a panel on CNBC to discuss the Silicon Valley automaker and made some of his boldest statement on the company yet.
Notably, he said Tesla is “going out of business” and called out Musk for deflecting on financial issues with flashy events such as the Tesla semi and Roadster reveal. In fact, he said what many people think: the new product reservations are just a way to quickly raise much-needed capital as the company burns through cash.
He followed up his first comments and said,”At this rate, they’ll never get to 2019.”
“There is no secret sauce in Tesla. They use the same lithium-ion batteries as everybody else,” he went on to say. Lutz believes all of Tesla’s current technology can easily be duplicated by any other automaker, which is exactly what the industry continues to trend towards. Numerous automakers, including General Motors, announced portfolios filled with electric cars in the near future. Cadillac predicted Tesla’s competitive advantage would soon become an industry standard years ago.
Thus far, Tesla has beaten the automotive startup odds, but it has yet to turn a consistent profit. 2018 should be a wild year for the fledgling automaker.
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Many will criticize Lutz but he helped the startup of GM’s Volt and its siblings. So he has the vast knowledge and experience of this theme. He may be predicting the truth about Tesla’s future since Musk is deviating attention to two future concepts and trying to cover his woes on the Model 3, which (as the others models have done) is delayed in starting full production (as expected!). And GM has already won the low cost BEV title with a year’s head start and thousands of customer sales.
Lutz is probably the most experienced and knowledgeable auto exec/ insider still alive today. He has been at the top at BMW, GM, etc etc. He is well into his 80s and still going strong. The only people who dont like him are those who have an inferiority complex regarding the guy because he is an Alpha male, former Marine helicopter pilot, speaks his mind, still flies his own private fighter jet, knows more about the auto industry than a hundred automotive industry bloggers combined, and is almost always right even if it doesnt fit the small-minded narrative.
You gotta love how these news anchors or pundits always “know so much more” than the executives, officials, or businessmen. I would believe Mr. Lutz more than all the rest.
Its called the FAKE NEWS mainstream media…Too bad for them the people are awake and not taking their BS propaganda anymore.
GM went out of business in 2009, maybe it’s the right time to be humble rather than predict the downfall of a legitimate company that stands on its own two feet.
Its not that GM went out of business in 2009, they had enough money set aside (about 16 billion dollars in free cash flow) .but the economy tanked going from nearly 17 million sold in the US to 10 million not even Toyota nor Ford who also got government subsidies could have been prepared for that. Tesla on the other hand knows how to keep the capital flowing, they always release new concepts to boost there capital, which is what he is saying..its a flawed concept. I’m hoping to see them be profitable, but if they don’t get it together soon there could be consequences.
Well magirus, one of tesla investors said this morning that they wanted him out of top seat by 2020. Tesla has have money problems from day one, has gotten money from these government too get started, and has not made a single dime on his car’s.
I hope he stays until the end then we can see the fall from the top all the way to the bottom
People who own Tesla stock, should consider selling now because Tesla’s success is still based on the fact that they’re still essentially the only game in town; but this will begin to change in as little as 18 months when General Motors and the rest of the industry begin introducing new EVs, it’s going to be interesting because will people still sink $100K on a Tesla when they can get a Mercedes electrified S-class sedan.
If GM made Cadillac all electric (like TESLA) it could have an amazing return to grace.
These will be many all electric cars coming from Cadillac soon, in these next 18 months will be these first one, and in these future be all electric Cadillac models line up.
One year later: Looks like Cadillac may be shutting down and Tesla is stronger than ever.